The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
by somethinglessobvious
Summary: Post CA:WS. To everyone around her Aria Parker is just an average girl, but what happens when a ghost from her past sucks her back into a life that she never wanted? How about when she comes face to face with the infamous Winter Soldier? Will she allow herself to trust in him? Or will she push him away until it's too late?
1. Prologue

**This chapter has been edited. I hope it makes it easier to read.**

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**Prologue**

Darkness.

I open my eyes to darkness, it surrounds me completely.

Silence.

The silence is deafening.

Frozen.

I can feel the frost seeping into my veins.

Suffocating.

The air is so stale and musty I can hardly breath.

These four thoughts are the first that I can fully process through. The next is I have no idea where I am.

I try sitting up since laying here isn't getting anything done. I can feel all of my bones popping as I do, I must have been knocked out for a while. The back of my head hurts like crazy.

How did I even get here? That's when it hits me.

They found me.

Before I can start processing this new thought I hear echoing footsteps. A key turns in a lock. When I hear a door start to creak open I jump to my feet to face my captor head on.

Light floods into the small room and it's so bright it's blinding. I throw my hands up preparing for a fight.

"Ah, I see you're settling in well. That's good seeing as how you are going to be here for a while."

No it can't be. My eyes finally adjust to the brightness and focus on the figure standing in front of me. Someone that I've spent so long running from.

"You."


	2. Coming Back From The Dead

**So first off I want to say thank you for reading this or even just giving this story a try. This is my first go at writing. I have so many ideas in my head though so I figured I would try writing them down and see what happens. If anyone has any ideas or comments about what I am writing or what I should write I'm all ears, and if I make any mistakes please feel free to tell me. This story is all AU and it is set after CA:WS. I will try and make the characters personalities how they are supposed to be even though I have not read any of the comics, like I said if I make any mistakes please tell me so I can correct them. All righty then I guess it's time to start. Thank you again.**

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**Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Marvel universe and/or the Marvel characters, if I did I would be sitting on a pile of money right now instead of my crazy uncomfortable couch.**

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**This chapter has been edited. I hope it's a little easier to read now.**

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**Coming Back From The Dead**

"Aria Parker."

I start walking toward the podium ready to receive what I've spent four years of my life working toward.

High school graduation.

The day that's supposed to mark the end of childhood. The day my future is finally supposed to come together.

I get to the podium and take my diploma from our principal Mr. Henderson. As I look out at the crowd of people gathered I can see my friends and classmates cheering for me. It makes me happy, almost like I'm a normal teenage girl. I smile and go to move on when I spot someone in the crowd. Someone from my past who I never thought I would see again. Even though I'm stunned I keep moving hoping no one had time to notice my reaction.

I get back to my seat, I sit down waiting for the ceremony to end. As I wait I try to focus on anything else because if I keep thinking about him I won't be able to keep myself from turning around. So I focus on where I am and the things that are surrounding me.

"Mikayla Rodgers."

In front of me there is a table that's holding the diplomas and awards for the students. The front of it is made of glass and in that glass I see my reflection. A girl with dark hair, almost black with the sunlight hitting it, and dark blue eyes. She's wearing a blue cap and gown. She looks almost content. I guess I could try smiling but I feel like whenever I try to hard to smile it always ends up looking fake. So instead of worrying about that I lean forward and look over at my friend Callie.

"Marcus Stafford."

Callie is my closest friend. She makes me feel like I could tell her anything because she has always been understanding. I met Cal when I first started going to this school. My family moved here at the end of freshman year and I had always been kind of a loner. I never had many friends. Some of that had to do with moving around so much, but most of it had to do with my personality.

I've never really been someone that you would call friendly, and yet somehow Callie saw past my stand-offish manner and decided to talk to me anyway. She would sit next to me at lunch and come by my house with cake for no other reason but to say hi. It was nice things like that, and the fact that she wouldn't stop talking to me no matter how hard I tried, that helped her worm her way into my life. Ever since then we've been friends and I honestly couldn't see my life without her.

"Stanley Tall."

Finally we're getting near the end of the list. A little while longer and I can go see why he's here.

"Alyssa Templeton."

"Mary Thompson."

"Keith Thyme."

"Sandra Torres."

Who the hell are all of these people? I've never seen any of them around here. As Henderson calls the final names we all sit up straighter, waiting for it to be over so that we can go hug our loved ones.

"Kendall Xavier."

I think that's it.

"Once again, I would like to congratulate all of you on making it to this important milestone in your lives."

"Now please stand and let us all congratulate you."

We all stand and the crowd starts applauding us. I feel strange since I don't really know any of these people. I had gone through my high school career without making a single friend outside of Callie.

"Alright that concludes the ceremony, if you would now make your way to the auditorium there are food and beverages waiting for you."

All of us start to move toward our friends and family. I scan the crowd in search for him, but there are to many people blocking my line of sight. I'll just have to wait for them to disperse, or for him to find me because there's no way I'm finding him in this crowd.

I go to stand near the stage so it'll be easier to see me when I feel someone grab my arm. I stiffen and spin around when I realize it's Callie.

"Hey girlie, you okay ya look like you've just seen a ghost?"

What she doesn't know is that I did just see a ghost.

"No I'm fine. Just a little scattered is all."

I'm hoping she won't question it.

"O yeah me too. Only my brain is scattered cause of the party later and everything that I still gotta do."

Of course she doesn't question it because she trusts me even though she shouldn't.

"Hey you still with me Ari?"

Crap I completely tuned her out while she was talking.

"Yeah I'm listening….. what were you saying again?"

She starts laughing because she knows how I get when she starts rambling.

"I was saying how you better be at my graduation party cause if you back out of another one of my parties I'm gonna start taking offense."

"Don't worry I'll be there- and I was sick last time remember?"

We both know that I wasn't sick.

"Uh huh. You sure do seem to get sick a lot around the time of my parties."

"Okay maybe I'm not sick for all of them, but come on you throw a lot of parties."

Callie is one of those people who loves a good party. I think it's partly because of her energetic and bubbly personality that makes her want to socialize all of the time. I on the other hand don't really like parties. Too many people packed into one space. I mean I'm not shy and I can hold a conversation. I just don't like when people ask me personal questions which inevitably happens, and then I have to make an excuse to leave.

"Just come and if you get uncomfortable you can leave okay?"

That why I love Callie so much. She doesn't expect too much from me. She knows my limits.

"I'll be there, don't worry. Hell maybe I'll even dance this time."

"That would make my life! O there's my mom flagging me down."

She waves at her.

"I better get over there before she starts yelling to get my attention and makes a scene."

"Yeah go on, and congratulations by the way."

She gives me a quick hug before she starts to walk away.

"Congrats to you too. Call me when you're about to head over okay?"

"I will. Bye."

I watch her dissappear into the crowd of people.

I start to walk back to my place near the stage. That's when I take notice of how nice it is today, it's almost seven O'clock and the sun is still bright. The trees are swaying with the slight breeze blowing. I sigh and take a deep breath of fresh air.

I've always loved the outdoors, it makes me feel peaceful. I love going for a run in the woods and losing track of time. I love waking up in the morning and hearing the birds chirping. I feel more relaxed in nature, I feel less paranoid.

Speaking of paranoia where is my ghostly friend? I thought he'd have found me by now?

Almost everyone has gone inside and the few people that are left have formed small groups of their own and are leaving to go somewhere else.

I'm thinking maybe I should have waited inside when I spot him standing at the edge of the woods. Of course he would want to talk there, where no one else could see us. Okay then, I think as I work my way over to him.

"Congratulations."

He says as he comes in for a hug.

"How are you even here right now?"

I say closing my eyes and wrapping my arms around his waist.

"Well I had to be here to see my favorite niece graduate didn't I?"

He says with a laugh.

"Thank you for being here and all, but you know that isn't what I'm talking about that. How are you alive? I was told that you had been killed. Why didn't you call me and tell me you were okay? I've been watching the news I know that there is no more S.H.I.E.L.D. Is that why you couldn't contact me? Did you go into hiding? Did you-"

"Whoa take a breath. How am I supposed to answer you when you won't let me speak?"

He says gently to calm me down.

"Sorry. Guess I'm just confused a little seeing as how you're supposedly back from the dead"

I say with a little attitude.

I know he doesn't deserve it though. He has always been so nice to me, he calls me his niece even though we're not related. I've always had a bond with him, he's like a second father to me.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't pass judgment on you when I've done way worse."

I say calming down a bit.

"It's alright. I know what you must have went through when you found out."

Yeah. I mourned him. It was like losing my parents all over again.

"What did happen? Really?"

"It's a long story. One that I'll tell you completely when we have time."

He says which is code for there's something wrong.

"What's happening now?"

There is no way I'm being pulled back into this.

"There's something I need you to do for me- and before you say no you should hear what it is."

I decide to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Okay."

"Alright then, how about we walk and talk?"

He says offering me his arm.

"Okay, but before we go anywhere-"

I give him one more quick hug. I let him go with a real smile on my face.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you Coulson."

"I know, I've missed you too Ari."

**So, yeah tell me what you think. I will try to find a day to post regularly. Okay then. Bye.**


	3. Here It Comes

**Hey so it took me a little while to write this chapter. It's kind of a filler chapter. Next chapter will be more exciting. Thanks again for reading.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my OC's. **

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**This chapter has been edited to make for an easier read.**

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"Damn."

That's all I can manage to say after everything Coulson tells me. What really happened to him. I almost couldn't believe he went through all of that and is still alive to talk about it. I mean if all of that had happened to me I'd be on the crazy train next stop looney bin. I felt so bad for him. He can tell because he tries reassuring me.

"Don't worry about me, I'm okay. Well maybe I'm not okay, but I will be soon."

"Okay so let's pretend I believe that you're okay, just to stop an argument before it starts. You still haven't told me why you're here?"

I say sitting down at the table outside of the cafe we just bought coffee from.

We decided to come here since it was one of the only places not crowded by the hoards of people from graduation. I had taken off my cap and gown and am now dressed in a tank top, jeans, sneakers, and a jacket cause it was starting to get chilly outside with the setting sun.

I sip my coffee waiting for him to answer me.

"So, you know everything that went down with S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra right?"

"Well yeah doesn't everyone? I mean it's been on the news for weeks. People are completely freaking out. They think that Shield is the enemy."

"Yes there is that but do you know what really happened?"

He asks with a serious expression on his face. O okay so we're not joking around anymore.

"You mean the whole Hydra infiltrating Shield thing? Yes, I was contacted by an operative loyal to Shield. They told me everything that took place."

"How did you know that they were loyal?"

He asks with a skeptical look which is understandable. When the organization that you've dedicated your life to suddenly crumbles around you, you start to question everything.

"I know she was loyal because a day after she contacted me she was found murdered in an alley. Apparently she was trying to find agents loyal to Shield and in doing so she talked to some of the wrong people."

Near the end of my statement sadness starts to creep into my voice. Her name was Katherine Bright, she and I were close when I was an agent.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I wish there was something that I could do, anything that I could do."

"Coulson, you're doing enough just by being alive. You're giving hope to all of us still loyal to Shield."

Coulson is such a big part of Shield. He has been second in command for as long as I have known him. Which brings me to my next statement.

"I saw what happened to director Fury, I know how close you two were. You have my condolences."

That was something I almost couldn't believe. I never thought that anyone would be able to take down the formidable Nick Fury.

I look up at Coulson because he had gotten really quiet and he had this look on his face. It seems like he wants to tell me something, but then changes his mind.

"Thank you."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm alright. Now I guess you're wondering what the favor I need from you is?"

He says clearly wanting to change the topic of conversation.

"Yeah. So what is it that you need me to do?"

I'm actually kind of nervous because I haven't been involved in this world for a while. Hopefully it isn't something to serious and life changing.

"I actually need you to watch someone for me."

Well okay. I guess I could do that. Doesn't seem to life changing.

"You mean like survellince?"

"No not really."

"Okay then what do you mean?"

Now I'm becoming confused again. Usually when you watch someone you follow them or get close to them. So if that's not it then what?

"I'll explain just not here, there are to many."

Yeah I guess it was getting a little crowded.

I look my watch noticing that an hour and a half had passed. People are starting to file in. I realize that I have about two hours before I have to be at Callie's party.

"Good call. Plus I gotta get home and get dressed for this graduation party I gotta go to."

We throw our cups away.

"So you've made some friends?"

He asks sounding a little surprised. Seriously? Is it that hard to believe that I could make some normal friends?

"Well I mean I've always had friends. Now I just have some normal friends."

I say leading him to believe that I have more friends then just Callie.

"That's the way it should have been from the start."

He says it softly and if I hadn't have been listening closely I probably wouldn't have heard him.

"Coulson you now I don't blame anybody for the way my life has turned out, right? I mean my life is better than a lot of agents. At least I left and have managed to have a pretty normal life."

It's true most agents never really leave Shield because it's all they've known for so long.

"You're right and I hate to have to ask you to do this."

We stop at a car and we both get in.

"I'm willing to do anything to help you out."

I'm sure he probably has a lot on his plate. A lot of things that he can't tell me about. He grabs a GPS and asks for my address.

"66 Park Street."

He inputs it and starts driving.

Coulson is one of the only people that I talk to like this, open and caring. I only have a handful of people left who I really love and trust. My baby brother is one. I mean I'm not really open with my brother Alec since he's so young, but I do love him and I would do anything to protect him.

I love Callie like a sister and I would like to say that I trust her. It's just you have to watch who you trust because all it takes is trusting in one wrong person and then they have the power to tear your world apart.

I only trust Coulson because my parents trusted him and I know that he would never do anything to hurt me or the people I care about.

We drive up the driveway leading towards my house. When we get to the garage Coulson stops the car and puts it in park. The inside of the house is dark because I'm the only one living in it right now. My aunt Jemma and Alec are out of the country on business right now.

My parents built up a successful gemstone mining business and when they died they left it to me. My aunt is the holder of the company now though, since I'm only eighteen. I become the majority owner when I turn twenty-five. Of course I first have to learn all of the ins and outs of the company, but I also want to go to college.

That was the plan before they died. I was supposed to go to college and learn some business management skills before I even got to intern at the company. Now everything is different, instead of interning after college I'll just inherit the company.

I constantly think about how different things would be if they were still alive, but there are things that require my attention now so I shake all of those thoughts out of my head and concentrate on the situation at hand.

I start to get out of the car when Coulson grabs my arm.

"I should tell you what's going on before we go in."

Ominous.

"Okay."

I settle back into my seat.

"So what is this top secret mission?"

I say since he obviously wants to keep this between us if we can't even go into the empty house.

"Have you ever heard of the Winter Soldier?"


	4. What?

**Okay so first off I want to say thank you for reading my story. I know that I haven't posted in almost three weeks. I am really trying to do the whole post a chapter a week thing but, I just wanted this chapter to have more in it than the other chapters do. That's partly why it took so long, I had half of it written two weeks ago I just wanted it to be better. This is my first attempt at writing an action scene so keep that in mind and like I've said before if you have any pointers on how I can make this story better please leave a review or message me. I'm going to work on putting up a profile. It may take me a while because I don't really know what to put on it so…. Yeah. This is the longest chapter I have written so far and I will try to put more up like this. I probably should have said sooner but, I'm gonna tell you now, this story is rated M mostly for language and violence. I know the story has romance as one of the genre's and there will be romance but it will take some time. At some point in this story though there will be romance scenes some may be rated T and some M I'll let you know before hand if It's going to be rated M for romance.**

**So, one last thing before you read I need to thank Red Serge, Regin, Splash1987, beverlie4055, smileyheather24, and toutie743 for following my story, and PaigeTwdSoa and Splash1987 for favoriting my story. When I get E-mails saying someone has favorited or followed my story it feels like Christmas so thank you, thank you, thank you.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel related, only my OC's.**

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**Okay so this chapter has been edited also, Which took forever by the way. Ugh.**

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"The Winter Soldier?"

I'm kind of confused as to why he would bring him up.

"Yeah of course I know who the Winter Soldier is... Why?"

"Well because he is your new mission."

I pause for a second and just stare at him because I need to process what he just said. Coulson looks at me, waiting for me to say something.

"Um, hold on."

Staring continues.

"Did you just say that the Winter Soldier….. is my new mission?"

I ask slowly.

"Yes that is what I just said"

"Okay let me make sure I heard you right, the Winter Soldier….. one of the most deadly assassins alive…. is my new mission?"

Please say no.

"Yes that is exactly what I just said."

Damn it.

"Are you crazy there's no damn way I am getting involved with the Winter Soldier in any compacity. Sorry Coulson but no."

He has to be insane, like completely insane. The Winter Soldier is a legend. Turns out he isn't just a legend, I found that out a couple of weeks ago when he and Hydra attacked Shield. He almost took out Captain America, and I am no Captain America. So there is no way I can or will do this mission.

"Before you go and right this off let me explain the situation."

Fine.

"Explain."

I say with a serious voice and look on my face.

"The Winter Soldier has broken away from Hydra."

"Well good for him."

I say sarcastically.

"He is also a war hero that deserves a second chance."

I do a double take which must look comical.

"Excuse me?"

How could this guy, who has killed a countless number of people, be a hero?

"There is a lot that we still don't know about him-"

yeah no kidding

"-but we do know he was Captain America's best friend and a Howling Commando before he supposedly died."

"So you're saying the man that tried to kill him just a couple of weeks ago is also his best friend?"

If Callie tried to kill me we would so not be friends anymore.

"It's complicated."

"Obviously."

"Look Cap believes that his best friend Bucky is still in there. All he needs to do is remember who he really is."

"Wait Bucky, as in Bucky Barnes? Bucky Barnes died a long time ago though."

Or at least that's what everyone, including Captain America, had believed apparently.

"That's what I'm saying. He didn't die. He was kept alive and controlled by Hydra."

I knew exactly what Coulson was trying to do. He wanted me to feel bad for this guy that I didn't even know, and the worst thing is it was starting to work.

"Alright I'm listening. What do you need me to do?"

I say regretting it the second the words come out of my mouth.

"Like I said, I need you to watch him for us."

"Okay, but you said I wasn't going to survey him. If I'm not surveying him or following him then how am I supposed to report to you on how he's doing?"

I say cause I'm still confused as hell.

"O you're surveying him, but you won't have to follow him seeing as how he'll be living with you."

…..

"Liv-living with me? I-I don't really understand how can he live with me I don't even know where he lives. I don't even know him!?"

"You're not living with him, he is going to be living with you."

I don't ever remember agreeing to that.

"No-oh no, oh nooo. You are not doing this to me right now, you are not going to make me live with an assassin."

"You know that I would never ask this of you if I thought that there was no redeeming him, right?"

"I know that, of course I know that but he's an assassin and you just said you don't know that much about him."

"You're absolutely right. I never knew him as Bucky Barnes but I do trust Cap and he says the Bucky that he knew would never hurt an innocent person."

I'm definitely not an innocent person so does that mean I'm on that kill list.

"If you don't want to do this though I'll completely understand. I won't say anything else about it because I can not assure your safety and that makes me almost want you to say no."

"If you wanted me to say no then why did you ask me in the first place?"

I mean it's not like I haven't been in harms way before. I worked for Shield for God sakes I was and always am going to be in danger.

"Because you are the only person that I can trust with this. Most of our loyal agents that are still alive are in hiding. Even if I could find someone qualified for this kind of mission I don't think I could trust them completely. The truth is you are one of the only people that I can still trust."

I feel bad for Coulson having to rebuild from the ground up. The higher up agents like Romanov and Barton are busy doing other things like saving the world and the lower level agents aren't skilled enough yet to take on something like this.

"Well can I at least think about it for a little while?"

If I am going to even consider bringing an assassin into my home I'll have to prepare. That means putting up security systems, ones more advanced than the ones I have now, and making sure I have the right kind of weapons in case he does decide to go all killy on me.

"I'm sorry, but there isn't a lot of time. I have to be back at base in a couple of hours, so you'll have to decide now."

Well shit. What do I do? Do I trust that Captain America, a man whom I've never met, knows what he's talking about? Do I say hell no and just be done with all of this? Do I give this man I don't even know a chance at redemption?

"So all you really need me to do is babysit him?"

"I guess you could call it that."

"I was never a good baby sitter though Coulson. I don't know how to handle most children let alone a soldier with major memory loss."

"You wouldn't only be 'babysitting' him. You would also be helping him try to regain his memories."

"I'm not a therapist either."

Coulson sighs.

"You obviously don't want to do this so, why don't you just say no?"

I honestly do not know why I can't say no. Maybe it's because at one point I was like him. I needed help and I had people there for me. I already know what my answer is going to be though so there's no use in stalling anymore.

"Okay."

Coulson looks shocked. Hell I'm kinda shocked too.

"Okay?"

"Yes, okay I'll do it. I'll watch him for you, but I can't promise that he'll get his memories back because of me. I also won't promise to help him at all, I may just ignore him."

I wont be able to ignore him though if he's living with me. I'll have to watch him closely.

"That's okay, as long as he has somewhere where he can concentrate on becoming his old self again. It also doesn't hurt that Hydra doesn't know where he is."

Great, another thing I have to worry about. Why do I feel like this guy is already trouble for me?

Well there's no time to waste.

"Alright then. How often do you need me to update you on his status?"

Since Captain America is probably going to want to know how his long lost friend is doing.

"I will contact you when I need a report."

He says which is alright with me. I mean I love Coulson, but I don't really want to give him reports everyday and I'm sure there are other things he has to do that are of more importance.

"Okay so now what?"

Since I've been debriefed and told what will be required of me for this mission.

"I guess it's time for you to meet your new house guest."

He says laughing even though nothing about this is funny and I let him know that with a glare.

"I guess it is. So where am I going to meet this Bucky Barnes?"

Thinking we'll probably meet at a neutral location so both of us can get a feel for the other.

"O, Mr. Barnes is already here."

…..

"What!?"

I jump out of the car and start running towards the front door.

I can't believe Coulson let this guy in my house before I even said yes to the mission. He could have escaped and went on a killing spree. He could have gone through family documents. He could have found out where my aunt and brother are right now.

By the time I reach the front door Coulson is just getting out of the car.

"Ari just wait a minute!"

I'm to focused on the assassin in my house to really care about what he is saying right now. I turn the knob to find out my door is unlocked which is just great. Anyone could come in or out of a house that's holding a trained killer.

I open the door and start walking through the hallway quietly. He could be anywhere just waiting to jump out at me.

I stop at the desk that sits right beside the opening of the living room and open the drawer. I reach for the dagger I keep in there just in case something like this ever happens. Luckily it's still there. As I grab it I here Coulson coming up the porch steps.

"You don't need that he isn't going to try anything."

He says as he comes up to me.

"Let's just say it's a precaution then."

There is no way that I'm meeting this guy unarmed.

"Where is he?"

"Probably right where I left him."

Coulson says walking into the living room. I follow him while scanning the room when my eyes land on a still figure standing by the window.

"Why is he just standing there?"

I say confused.

"I told him he should stay where he was. I never thought he would take it so literally."

I flick the light on since it's kind of creepy to stand here in the dark. Now that I can see I look at my new assignment.

He looks different then how he looked in the pictures I've seen. His hair is short now. I guess Coulson's to thank for that because he's less recognizable with short hair than with long, and that helps with concealing him from the public eye.

He's big too, but that's usually how most of the agents I've met look anyway since they have to always take down someone bigger then them. Even though he's wearing a long sleeved shirt I can see that he does in fact have a metal arm which is an exact imitation of the other one. How hydra managed to do that I have no clue. I'm sure that Tony Stark would love to get his hands on it though.

The thing I noticed first though is the emotionless expression on his face.

I can't imagine what Hydra did to him to change him like this, it almost makes me feel bad for him, almost.

"Mr. Barnes this is agent Parker, she will be your handler for the time being. At least until you regain your memories."

Great so now I'm not only his babysitter and therapist I'm also his handler. Yay for me!

I don't say anything, I just stare at him which I realize is making me look weird.

"Hi I'm Aria."

Great now I seem like I wanna be friends. The truth is I have no idea how to handle this situation. I have to act like I do though since I'm going to be 'handling' him for a while. I should lay all the cards on the table I guess, so there's not any confusion in the future.

"Okay here's what's going to happen. I will let you live here as long as you don't do anything that makes me think you might be considering old habits, like killing people… mostly me. If you try to hurt me or anyone I care about, if you try to contact Hydra, or even if you just look at me the wrong way, I will have no problem making sure you're shipped of to the highest of security prisons. Do you understand?"

I know I sound like a bitch but I need him to know how serious I am about this.

He looks at me for the first time, like he didn't even realize I was here in the first place. He gives me a once over, like I did to him.

"I understand."

His voice is deep and scratchy.

"Okay then, good."

"Maybe we should all sit then?"

Coulson says trying to diffuse the situation and calm me down.

Coulson sits first while Bucky and I watch each other. Knowing the other is the biggest threat to our well being, with Coulson being a neutral party. I walk over and sit on the sofa next to Coulson. Bucky follows my lead, but instead sits on the other side of us. Which is just fine with me. The farther I am from this crazy the better.

"Alright then, we should talk about what is going to happen here."

I'm still watching Bucky waiting for Coulson to finish. Coulson clears his throat obvious to the tension in the room.

"I have debriefed you both on what your part in this is. Aria is going to house you and keep you hidden until you get your memories back, in which time you will be visited by a doctor and therapist so that you can discuss your time at Hydra and break the link they've established."

"Wait, they're still controlling him?"

I said interrupting Coulson.

"Not exactly, they can't control him unless they get their hands on him."

That's reassuring.

"Aria you will give me reports on Bucky's condition when I call you."

"Yep."

"How long is he gonna be here?"

Hopefully only a couple of weeks at most.

"I don't know yet, it depends on when he fully regains his memories."

Basically months then. Wonderful.

Coulson's phone rings.

"Just give me one minute. I'll be right back."

Before he leaves the living room he turns around.

"and try not to kill each other okay?"

"Can't make any promises"

I say with a smile on my face.

"Very cute."

He says turning his back to me again.

When Coulson leaves the room I take the time to look at Bucky again. I know it's not polite to stare, but I need to analyze his movements. I need to be acutely aware of everything he does. He looks like he can't wait for Coulson to come back so I decide to take the chance to talk to him.

"So what does it feel like to be an assassin?"

I know it's a low blow but I want to see if he'll react. He just gives me a look that says he knows I'm trying to egg him on. Well there goes my fun.

"Not a big talker are you?"

Another look.

"I can see that this is going to be a very en-joyful experience for both of us."

Really? Nothing at all? I can get a reaction out of anyone.

"Alright then I can see you're not going to converse with me in anyway so I'll just keep it to yes or no questions from now on then."

Where is Coulson I need someone to bicker with cause this guy is no fun.

"I have to go."

Coulson says as he re-enters the room. I jump off of the couch.

"What you can't just leave me alone with him."

"You'll be fine and honestly I'm more afraid for his well-being."

"Bu-but."

Coulson comes over and hugs me.

"If you need anything I'm just a phone call and flight away. Now I really have to go. Mr. Barnes I'll talk to you later about setting up your therapy sessions soon."

Bucky just nods his head.

"I'll see you later okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

I say clearly not happy with this turn-out. He gives me one last look.

And without another word he's out the door and I'm left standing in the middle of my living room angry and confused.

What did I just agree to?

"Okay. So what now?"

I say turning back around to face my new house guest. He's still sitting which is confusing seeing as how I thought he would be out of that seat the second Coulson left just waiting for me to pull something.

Even though I would never do something like that

….

he obviously hasn't heard a lot about me, but even though he is sitting I can still tell if I did try to attack him he would be up in a split second, and that's kinda scary.

"This is your house."

He says. Wow stating the obvious now aren't we?

"Yes it is, so?"

I say waiting for him to answer. Which he doesn't.

Of course, why would I think this would be easy. I notice he isn't looking around anymore he's just staring at me like he's waiting for me to tell him what to d-

ohhh, he is waiting for me to tell him what to do. I guess he's been under Hydra's control for so long he's just used to having someone lead/control him, kinda like a puppy. A very scary, angry puppy.

"Ummmm, are you hungry or thirsty or something?"

Really that's the first thing I could come up with? I should have asked him if he's feeling the urge to kill me or something. At least I know that I'm being a good host. He looks like he's contemplating whether he is or isn't.

"Thirsty."

Is the only thing he says.

"Well we have water, juice, tea, Gatorade…."

"Water."

"Alright I'll go get you some water then."

I walk to the kitchen and get a bottle of water out of the fridge for him. Usually I would just tell him to get is himself but I'll go easy on him for now. As I walk toward the living room I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have left him alone.

I have to stop thinking that way though. I need to trust Coulson and his ability to read people. I mean I'm never gonna fully trust the guy, but I could at least give him a chance. My parents always told me that I judged people to quickly and that I needed to learn to give them a chance. I do try to do that it's just I'm usually right about most people and like I said I'm not very trusting in the first place. If I was I would be dead by now so I guess it's good for me that I'm a judgey type of person.

I pass the hallway clock and check the time. It says that it's nine O' clock. I go through the archway to the living room-

Crap. It's nine O' clock- the party, O shit I'm so late. I usually show up about a half hour late but I know Callie really wanted me at this party on time. I shouldn't have been worried about the assassin in my living room killing me, I should have worried about Callie killing me.

I just know that I'm gonna be bitched out.

I run into the living room like there's a 'frickin fire. Bucky jumps up thinking that we're being attacked.

"No it's okay, I just realized that I'm late for this thing that I have to be at."

That seemed to have calmed him a bit.

"O, here's your water."

I hand him his water and he sits back down.

"Thank you." That sounded strange coming out if his mouth but I have a more pressing matter to think about.

"Will you be alright staying here by yourself for like a couple of hours?"

God I sound like I'm talking to a ten year old. of course he'll be okay he's a grown man. It isn't like he hasn't been on his own before.

"Yes I will be alright."

I'm not completely convinced but I don't really have time to question him.

"Okay good. I should show you your room though, in case you wanna sleep or something."

I don't even know what room I'm going to put him in. Maybe the one my brothers stay in when they come to visit, since it's kept clean for them in case they decide to surprise us with a visit.

"Follow me and I'll give you a quick tour of the house."

He gets up off the couch with his water in hand and follows me out of the living room.

"Okay so you know we were just in the living room."

I lead him down the hall.

"And this is the kitchen. It's pretty stocked with food and drinks in case you get hungry or thirsty."

He looks around for a second and then looks at me to tell me we can continue. As we go back through the hall I stop at a door.

"This leads to the basement, there isn't really anything down there though."

I keep going through the hallway and turn to go up the steps. When we reach the top there's a room right off the stairwell.

"This is my Aunt's office."

He nods.

We start walking down the hall. There's eight doors in this hallway. We stop at the second door.

"This is one of my brothers old rooms. So is the one across."

We keep going, the next door is to my left.

"This is my room. The one across from me is my brother Alec's room."

We get to the next one.

"This is my Aunt's room and the one across is the bathroom."

Finally we reach the end of the hall.

"And this is going to be your room."

I open the door and lead him inside. The room isn't the biggest in the house but, it's clean and has a bathroom connected to it. The bed is a queen and there's a dark wood dresser, nightstand, and desk. I notice he has no clothes with him, which means we'll have to drive into the city to go shopping.

Maybe we'll tackle that tomorrow.

"So, there's a bathroom right through here."

I open the door for him.

The bathroom kind of matches the bedroom, It's basically all black like in the bedroom. I picked everything for these rooms out so you can probably tell that I like black.

"I'll get you some towels before I leave so you can take a shower if you want."

I look over at him but he looks like he's just tired.

"Or you can go to sleep and get a shower in the morning."

"I don't want to go to sleep."

Um okay?

"I think you should though cause, I'm sorry to sound rude, but you look like shit."

Okay maybe I could have said that nicer.

"I don't want to go to sleep."

He says with a little more force trying to get me to understand something unspoken.

That when I finally get that maybe he doesn't want to go to sleep because he probably thinks he'll wake up and be in Hydra's control again. So maybe I don't push the whole sleep thing.

"Okay, well like I said you can take a shower or you could watch some TV."

I show him the TV in the corner and grab the remote. I turn on the television and click through some of the channels.

"I don't know what you like to watch but I'm sure you'll find something."

I say as he sits on the bed. I think he may have come to the fact that I'm not going to try and control his actions like Hydra used to.

"Well, I really got to get dressed and get to this party. Is there anything you need to ask me before I leave?"

"No, you should get to your party."

Wow that might be the longest string of words I've heard him say yet.

"Alright. O wait, do you have a phone?"

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out an Iphone.

"Can I see it?"

He hands it to me.

"Okay I'm gonna put my number in here so if you have any questions about where something is you can call me."

After I input my number I hand him back his phone. He just sits there staring again.

"I'm gonna go get dressed then."

I go into my room which is decorated a little more than his is. It's teal and black with yellow accents. I go into my bathroom and brush my hair out so I can put it into a ponytail. After I fix my hair I get dressed in a casual outfit and put on some boots.

I go to the closet in the hall and get a couple of towels for Bucky. When I get to his room he's sitting just where I left him.

"Here's your towels and like I said if you need anything, or if anything happens, call me."

He nods his head and then I'm out of his room running down the steps.

"Bye!"

I say before closing the door.

I get in my jeep and start to drive towards Callie's house. I feel a little bad for just leaving him alone but I'll be back soon seeing as how I hate gatherings like this. Everyone's always drunk, trying to dance with or on you, and someone always starts a fight. Which leads them to being kicked out.

Maybe Callie won't notice if I sneak out early.

I arrive at Callie's house and I can already tell this is going to be fun.

Kids are drinking and making-out on the front lawn and I can here the loud music from out here. Well here goes nothing. I go up the walkway whilst trying to sidestep the people who are already drunk. I get inside and it's like I just walked into a pool of beer, well it smells like it anyway. I push through the crowd of people to get to the kitchen. That's were Callie usually is during these parties, to make sure everyone's having a good time.

I spot her sitting on the island in the kitchen talking to some guys I've never seen at school before.

"Hey Ari, over here!"

She says when she spots me. She hops off the island and comes over to me.

"Where have you been?"

"Sorry, I had something come up last minute."

Which is completely true by the way. If she only knew.

"What happened? Is someone hurt or something?"

She says with concerned.

"No my brother just started feeling home sick so I had to calm him down."

I don't feel great about lying to her but if I really told her what was going on odds are she probably wouldn't even believe me. Even if she did she would be in danger, and I couldn't do that to her or her family.

"I hope he's okay now."

"Yeah he's fine."

"Great, and at least you came. That's all I can really ask for."

"Told you I would."

And I usually never break my promises.

"And maybe you can stay for more than half an hour this time?"

Well crap there goes my genius plan.

"I'm not making any promises on that."

She just laughs and starts leading me into the kitchen.

"You want a drink?"

She says going to the fridge since she knows that I don't like to drink alcohol.

"Uh yeah, can I have a coke?"

"Sure."

She hands me the can and I take a drink.

"So, how does it feel to be a high school graduate?"

"It doesn't feel any different really. Maybe it will when I start college."

"Really? Well I feel great. I feel like an adult now."

Ha I've been an adult since I was like ten.

"I can't wait to start my summer trip. I really wish you would've come with me."

She says sadly.

Her parents gave her a summer trip around Europe for her graduation present. You wanna know what I got. A Hydra assassin.

Now I kinda wish I would've taken her parents up on the offer of sending me with her. I think they're just afraid of Callie being on her own for so long, so far away.

"I know but I got a company to run."

She can tell I'm starting to go into my own little world after that statement.

"Let's dance!"

"You know I don't dance."

Which is the truth, I'm a horrible dancer. My parents tried to sign me up for a dance class once and the first time I saw the pink tutu in class I threw it on the ground and left. They couldn't find me for an hour because I had gone to the ice cream shop down the road.

I was five.

"Okay, well if you won't dance then let's mingle."

O yea mingling. One of the only things I liked less than dancing but, what can you do.

"Alright."

We walk over to the bar and Callie starts talking to one of the girls standing there. I've seen her at school,

I think her name is Marcie? I just stand there and act like I'm listening to what there saying while I scan the room. I look at Callie and see her doing the same. Is she looking for someone?

I get my answer right after that thought.

"O look there's Oliver."

Okay who the hell is Oliver?

"Come on lets go talk to him."

She pulls me along and stops at the living room couch, which is surprisingly empty, and sits down next to a guy I've never seen before.

He's tall probably about six foot one, with a full head of black hair. I'm guessing he's into sports cause he's bulky which I can see because he is wearing a black tee shirt that clings to his arms, and his eyes are a really bright green. He's kinda cute I guess but not really my type.

With that observation I already know where Callie is going with this before she evens speaks.

"So Ari this is Oliver, and Oliver this is Aria."

He puts his eyes on me.

"Hey it's nice to finally meet you, Callie has told me so much about you."

He says in a deep voice while reaching out his hand for me to shake. I shake his hand, which is huge by the way.

"Well Callie hasn't really told me anything about you but, nice to meet you too."

Another thing Callie likes to do is play match maker. She's forever trying to get me hooked-up with someone. It's a nice thought and all but I have never really been interested in having a boyfriend. I've always had something else I had to worry about, and I don't hook-up so these things are always so awkward.

"Well I'll leave you two alone so you can talk and get to know each other."

Callie gets up and leaves.

"Wait. Callie!"

She keeps on walking though, and now I'm left alone with Oliver.

I mean he's definitely like cover model hot but like I said, I'm not really looking for that right now and even if I was, hot isn't really my type.

There I go judging again.

I'm sure he's a good guy, or else Callie wouldn't have set this up but I just always figured I would find someone when I got out of college and he would understand everything I've done because I could tell him anything.

Let's face it though, fairy-tales don't just happen. Especially to people like me.

"So where do you plan on going to college?"

Oliver says, which brings me out of my daydreaming.

"I don't really know yet I haven't decided."

I say as I start to fidget.

This is already awkward.

"Well I'm going to the University. I'm on football scholarship."

Ha I new it.

"O cool what are you studying?"

"Psychology."

"That sounds like it would be fulfilling."

I say cause I don't know what else to say.

"I guess."

We sit there silent for a couple minutes

…..….

"You wanna dance?"

He says with a megawatt smile. I say the only thing that comes to mind.

"I think I have to pee now."

God I'm a mess.

"Okay do you need me to come with you."

O no that wasn't an invite.

"No I think I can manage."

I get up and make my way to the kitchen where I find Callie.

"Yeah, I don't think Oliver and I are going to work out."

"O come on he's perfect!"

Yeah I know.

"To perfect."

"Well I can find someone else just give me a minute."

She says as she starts to walk away.

"Wait, I'm fine really. I know you think I'm not happy because I'm not with someone but, I am happy and I'll be fine while your in Europe."

I say because I know that's what's really been bothering her this whole time.

"I know you will be."

She says as she gives me a Callie hug. I pull away first.

"I think I'm gonna leave. I kinda wanna call Alec again and see how he's doing."

What I really want to do is get out of here go home to get some sleep.

Plus I want to see how Bucky is settling in, if he's even still there.

"I understand, and hey you lasted an hour and a half!"

"I know it must be a record."

She laughs. I tell her goodbye and walk out to my car.

I get in my car and drive home nervous about what I might find.

I pull up in my driveway and get out of my car. I can't see any lights on in the house so maybe he did go to sleep.

I unlock the door and walk inside. I'm reaching for the light switch when I'm grabbed from behind and put in a choke-hold.

I don't think I just react, I kick my head back hoping to startle them and I make contact with what I'm guessing is a nose. I flip my body forward and I pivot to the side to break the hold. Their arm relaxes slightly giving me a chance to slip through and jump to my feet. As soon as I'm on my feet I make a dash towards the kitchen to grab the first sharp thing I can find. I can hear them coming up fast behind me.

I almost grab a knife when they tackle me to the ground. I smack my forehead on the side of the counter before I land hard on my back. My head is spinning and it's hard to breath but I can't let them get the upper hand, if they do, and they know what their doing, I'm dead. I pull my knees up and kick them in the chest. I propel myself to my feet and grab a knife. I go for the light switch next, flicking it on.

Light floods the room which only makes it worse for me cause my heads still spinning. I still can't see them clearly because my vision is blurry. I run towards the intruder and hear

"Wait!"

But it's to late, I've already kicked their feet out from under them and am now on top of them with the knife pressed against their throat.

"Aria, It's me."

Wait, I recognize that voice.

"Bucky?"

I squint my eyes and they focus on his face.

It is him.

And I have a knife on his throat about to kill him.

"What the hell? Why did you jump me the second I walked through the door?"

I say staying exactly where I am in case he tries anything.

"I didn't know it was you."

"What so it would've been okay if it was someone else? What if my Aunt or little brother would have walk through that door?"

I say, and he better think really hard about what he says next because if he thinks I'm pissed now he's seen nothing, especially when it comes to my family.

"No it would not have been okay, and it wasn't okay to attack you either."

Is he being sincere or is he just playing me?

"The second I realized it was you I stopped."

I guess he did because there's no way he would've let me put him on his back otherwise.

"Are you gonna be cool if I take this knife away from your throat?"

I say giving him the deadliest look I can manage.

"I won't make a move."

I think he's trying to make sure I know I have control of this situation. I take the knife away and get on my feet giving him my hand to pull himself up. He takes it and gets to his feet.

"Why did you attack me though?"

I'm still confused. He looks reluctant to tell me.

"I fell asleep. I woke to a noise and just went into action. I know they don't control me anymore but I still have their orders in my head."

Meaning he went into assassin mode and I was the target.

"Well I guess I can't really blame you. It's actually good you acted, it could have been Hydra coming through that door."

I say and even though I'm still pissed for being jumped I can understand where he's coming from. If Hydra had me for the amount of time that they had Bucky I don't know who I would be right now.

I put the knife back on the counter and grab a towel to stop the bleeding on my forehead.

"I'm sorry for hurting you. I promised myself and Coulson I wouldn't hurt you."

Bucky says with a guilty look on his face.

"What Coulson doesn't know won't hurt him, just promise me that next time you'll try to make sure it's an actual threat, and I'll make sure to state my presence."

"You mean you still want me here even though I attacked you? I could have killed you."

"But you didn't, so no harm no foul okay?"

This is my way of trying to make him feel better.

"Okay."

He looks at me again and for the first time I can see him slightly opening up. I'm starting to think that I shouldn't have judged him so quickly. Maybe he can get through this and come out on the other side.

"I'm gonna go clean up and get ready for bed."

I say since it's starting to get a tad bit awkward in here.

"And don't let this incident keep you from trying to sleep again. I mean even if you did attack me again I can obviously handle myself."

I say pointing to the knife. He starts to laugh and then stops suddenly. He looks confused like he doesn't even know where it came from.

I look at him for a minute thinking he has a nice laugh and should do it more.

Wait what?

Where did that come from?

I think I might have hit my head harder than I thought, maybe I should get checked for a concussion.

Na, I don't need a hospital I need sleep. I go up to my room leaving him in the kitchen.

When I get to my bedroom I go into the bathroom and grab the first aid kit from under the sink. When I take the towel away I see a big gash on my forehead. It isn't big enough for the effort of real stitching so I opt for the butterfly stitches.

I put two on the cut and clean the rest of the blood off of my face. When I'm done I get out of my clothes, put on one of my sleep shirts, and climb into bed. I listen to see if Bucky is still moving around downstairs.

I can't here anything but that doesn't mean he isn't down there, he seems like the silent movement type. Hopefully he decides to go to sleep. I get comfortable and close my eyes. I think about what Bucky's life was like before all of this. I heard stories but, I'm not really a history buff so I don't know the specifics.

Maybe I should do some research, is the last thought I have before falling asleep.


	5. Shopping yay!

…**.So this took forever. I just couldn't get a clear image of what I wanted to happen in this chapter. I wanted something a bit more exciting then the last couple. Today it finally came to me though and I hope you like where I took it. I'm trying to show the relationships of the characters in this chapter and loosen some of the tension between Aria and Bucky. I will definitely try and get another chapter out as soon as possible. As always I would love to hear from you so please review and follow. Thanks for reading!**

**Thank you LexLuther13, XXPrincessJadeXX, and CoffeeandMorphine for following my story you're awesome!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story except for my ocs.**

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**This chapter has been edited. For the better I hope.**

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_Buzz_

…_._

_Buzzzzz_

"Wha-"

I bolt up out of my bed. I just had the weirdest dream, wait, was it a dream?

_Buzzzzzz _

"What the hell is that?"

I get out of bed and listen for the noise again.

_Buzzzz_

I follow the sound and it leads to my pile of clothes in the corner of my room. Okay so I'm not the 'cleanliest' of people. Is it my fault that I have things to do other than laundry?

Buzzzz

Damn it! What is that incessant buzzing?

O wait.

My phone. I must have left it in my pants from last night seeing as how I wasn't really concerned with anything but sleep when I got home.

Now what pants were they?

I have no idea so I start the search, which takes forever. I find my phone and see that I have one missed call from my Aunt. I hit the voice mail button.

"_Hey I just wanted to see how graduation went. I know you don't care that we weren't there but I do, so call me back and tell me everything. Okay talk to you later. Love you Ar, bye." _

Beep.

I can tell from the sound of her voice that she feels guilty for not being there, even though I told her not to worry about it.

Hey at least I had Coulson.

I'll have to call back but not now. I have to brush my teeth and wake-up firs-

Coulson.

Suddenly everything rushes back into my drowsy brain. Coulson came to my graduation and told me I had a mission.

Bucky.

Crap I can't believe I forgot. As you can see I was never the best agent of Shield.

*_CRASH_

_...…_..

What was that?

I run out of my room towards the noise which I discover came from Bucky's room. I open the door and see Bucky standing in front of the bathroom door. Without a shirt on. Holding the molding of the top of the door in his hand.

"What happened?"

He looks up at me

"I was doing pull-ups."

"On the door?"

"Yes."

Okay well that explains the molding and why he has no shirt on, which is a sight if I do say so myself. I mean I've seen men shirtless before, at Shield all the time, but this was different. All I can think is damnnnn.

After staring at his sculpted abdomen for about two minutes my eyes move over to his arm, his metal arm. I was right in thinking it looks just like his other flesh arm. The metal is definitely high grade and highly technological. My eyes make their way up to where the metal meets skin. Where they meet is scarred looking, like it took a couple of tries to get it to fit correctly. My eyes meet his and I see he's starring at me starring at him, and I realize that I've been checking him out right in front of him. In complete silence. Awkward.

Hey at least my mouth wasn't hanging open.

I decide to say something first to break the silence.

"It's okay I can fix the door. It's an old house, stuff breaks all the time. No biggy."

This house has become a piece of crap. The pipes leak all the time, the heater has to be replaced, new roof, this house is one strong gust of wind from crumbling in on itself.

"No. I'll fix it."

The way that he says it makes me feel like he's sure about it.

"Okay. I'll get you some tools later."

"Okay."

He walks over and puts the piece of wood on the bed. Then he stops and looks at the spot next to me, near my leg. I look at the ground expecting to find a bug or something, and see nothing except for my leg.

...

My naked leg.

I ran out of my room so fast I didn't think to put pants on. So now I'm in my night shirt that only goes to my mid thigh. My cheeks heat, and I'm sure that they're beat red by now, when I look up at him again.

I see his eyes scan my body and I start to feel self conscious. I don't even wear skirts let alone a short nightgown around anyone, especially around someone like Him. I gotta get out of here.

"Uhh, I'm gonna go get dressed and then eat some breakfast."

He clears his throat.

"Okay."

I rush past him out the door to my bedroom. I shut the door once I get in. Well that couldn't have been any more awkward if I had tried. I can't believe I just checked him out, I don't even find him attractive.

Lie.

Okay, maybe the tinniest bit. No. I cannot think like that. He is my mission. I am not attracted to him. He's an assassin for God's sake, not some guy at my school that I can hit on.

Alright Parker get your act together. You can do this.

I go to my bathroom and brush my teeth. When I'm done I brush and pull my hair up in a ponytail. I go to my closet and put on a pair of jeans, a tank top, converse, and a hooded jacket. I go to my dresser and grab my necklace and ring off of it.

The necklace was a gift from my parents. When I became an agent they gave me a necklace with a charm of a bow and arrow. They were my weapon of choice when I was out in the field. Now I usually go for knives or I just stick to my fists. Never guns, I don't like guns.

The ring is my father's wedding band. When they died my aunt gave it to me. She had it sized to fit my middle finger so now I wear it all of the time. I put some studs in my ears and I'm ready to go.

"Hey. You still up here?"

No answer but, I here a shower running.

"At least he's hygienic."

I go down the steps and into the kitchen. What to eat? I grab some cereal out of the cupboard and the milk from the fridge. While I eat my cereal I think of what I'm gonna do today.

Well what we're gonna do today. I don't wanna leave him alone just yet. Yeah, Coulson didn't really say not to leave his side but I just wanna play it safe for now.

_Knock Knock Knock. _

What now? I put my empty bowl in the sink and go answer the door.

"Hey."

It's Callie.

I keep the door cracked in case Bucky decides to come up behind me. If she saw him I don't know what I would say to explain.

"Hey, just wanted to make sure you were okay after last night. I really didn't mean to make you uncomfortable I promise."

"No I'm fine. Like I said last night, I just wanted to make sure Alec was okay."

That reminds me that I still have to call my Aunt back.

"Okay good."

"Okay."

I know she didn't just come here just to make sure I was okay. She's a great friend and all but I live a couple miles from civilization. So she just would've called unless she needed something.

"What's up?"

"Can I come in?"

I'm sure she can sense that I'm being weird.

"O Umm, yeah of course."

I open the door up for her to come in.

I still hear the shower running, which is good. I hope he takes a while to get dressed too, or hears company and waits until Callie leaves. Callie walks in and gos straight for the living room. She plops down on the couch and gets comfortable.

"So What'd you need?"

"Why are you acting weird?"

"I'm not acting weird."

I sit down on the couch.

"Yeah ya are."

I scratch the back of my neck nervously.

"I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"You should really download that sleep app I was telling you about. Puts me to sleep every night, I never have any problems."

"I'll remember to do it tonight."

She looks at me for a second like she wants to question me further. Callie is usually like a blood hound when she thinks I'm lying. She decides not to though, thank God.

"I wanted to see if you wanted to have a lazy day and just eat ice cream while binge watching Friends?"

We both share a love of Friends, who doesn't, and binge watching TV shows. Sometimes we even binge watch just to make fun of the show.

"I actually have some things I have to get done today."

"Anything I can help with?"

"Not really, just stuff for the company."

"Okay, then. Maybe tomorrow?"

I feel bad for blowing her off. We haven't spent a day together in a long time because I've been stressed about so many different things going on in my life. Like the business and whether or not I'm gonna get to go to college.

"Definitely tomorrow."

I get up off of the couch and start walking toward the foyer.

"I'll call you later to sort it out."

"Sounds great."

She gives me a hug and grabs the door handle when we hear a creak coming from upstairs.

Stupid old house.

"What was that?"

Dammit. So much for this being relatively easy.

"You know these old houses, they're always making creepy noises."

A door closes.

"Um I don't think a house can close a door."

Why does she have to be smart, why can't she just buy my sorry excuses? Before I can say anything she starts jumping to conclusions, Callie style.

"O my God is there someone else here? Do you have a guy up there Ari? I know it's not Oliver, did you hook-up with someone?"

Alright here comes the bullshiting.

"No I did not hook-up. I do have a guy staying here but it's nothing scandalous like you're thinking."

She stands in front of me waiting for an answer as to who it is. Who is it?

"It's my cousin."

"I thought you didn't have cousins?"

She's right, I don't.

"He's my parents friends son."

"So he's not really your cousin?"

"No not technically, I grew up with him though so he's actually like a brother to me."

Dig your grave a little deeper Aria.

"So your cousin, who's like a brother, is staying with you? Why?"

"He was in an accident about a month ago and just woke up from a coma."

O no, a coma? Really, that's the best I could come up with?

"O my God I'm so sorry. So you're taking care of him?"

"Yep. He doesn't really have anyone else, his parents died."

"Wow that's really terrible. You could've just told me instead of lying."

She looks so hurt. I'm a horrible friend.

"I know, it's just he's kind of shy and I'm not so sure he could handle meeting someone new right now."

"You mean because I talk a lot don't you?"

She is right about that. I don't know if Bucky could handle her personality. Callie is really nice and she has a huge personality, that can take a while to get used to.

When I first met Callie I thought she was just plain annoying, but she wouldn't give up on trying to be friends with the new kid. She wore me down and I found when I starting hanging out with her she grew on me. I saw past the annoying blabber mouth and saw that she actually cared about the people around her. She takes a longtime to get used to though, and I don't know if Bucky has the patience it takes.

"It's not only that you talk a lot. He just got here last night. I think he needs time to settle in before I introduce you two, you know?"

"Yeah I get it."

"And I am sorry for lying. I just knew that you would want to meet him if you knew about him."

"That's so not true."

I give a her a look that says I know her to well.

"Okay you're right, I do really want to meet him but can you blame me? I never get to meet anyone in your family or any of your other friends. It's like you have some secret you have to protect."

You have no idea how right you are Callie.

"Nope no secrets here, and the reason why you haven't met my family is because you're always away when they come to visit. As for my old friends, I don't really think you would like them. They're kind of standoffish."

"You know, you're probably the strangest friend that I have. That's why your my best friend though."

I never thought that I needed a best friend before, or even wanted one.

I was always comfortable alone but now that I have a best friend, I know I wouldn't be able to go back to being lonely again.

"I promise I will introduce you to him the next time you're over okay?"

"Alright. What's his name by the way?"

I can't give her his real name and I can't tell her his nickname so I go with "Max."

"Well tell Max that I look forward to meeting him and I have to say, you're a great 'cousin' for doing this for him."

"I'm sure he'll want to meet you too and thanks, I'm just doing what anyone else would."

Or what any other agent would.

She gives me a hug and then opens the door.

"I'll talk to you later, maybe we can go see a movie or something?"

"Sounds great. Bye."

"Bye."

She closes the door and I lock it behind her.

That was way to close for comfort. Now I have to arrange some kind of meeting between the two. That ought to be fun.

_Buzz __Buzz_

Can't I have at least five minutes of peace, damn. I check the caller ID and it says unknown but I know who it is.

"What's up?" _"_

_Hey Ari how are things going?" _

"Since Yesterday? Nothing has happened so it's been great so far."

"_Good. This will be quick I just had to tell you about Bucky's appointment tomorrow." _

"This fast? I thought you would give him a couple of days to get settled in?"

I mean he did just get here.

"_We want__ed__ to get started sooner rather than later. Plus anything he can tell us about Hydra __could __help us to eradicat__ing__ them." _

"Yeah I can see how he could be helpful. I don't know how much he's gonna talk though."

"_This therapist is one of the best." _

"Well then maybe they can help him. What time tomorrow?"

"_She__ will be at your house at two-thirty __sharp__." _

"Okay I'll make sure to tell him."

"_Thank you for doing this Ari and remember if anything happens call me." _

I would tell him about the incident last night but he would blow it out of proportion. So I decide to keep it to myself for now.

"Don't worry everything is fine here." _"_

_That's good. Well gotta go save the world." _

"Alright, bye Coulson." _"_

_Bye." _

_Click_.

I just knew that this whole therapy thing Wouldn't end well.

I notice how long it's been since hearing the sower running. I walk up the stairs and knock on Bucky's door.

"Hey are you gonna eat breakfast?"

He opens the door.

"I'm not hungry."

"Okay. Well are you gonna come downstairs at least?"

I wonder what he's doing.

"Do you want me to come downstairs?"

Really? This again?

"You know you came move freely around the house right? You are technically a guest here."

He looks at me like I'm crazy.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

I think about that for a second and I realize I'm not really afraid of him, I'm just UN-trusting.

"I don't scare easy."

I turn and start to walk away when I here him following me. We end up in the kitchen.

"Are you sure you're not hungry? The fridge is stocked."

I say as I sit down and open my laptop to check my e-mails. I'm trying to give him as much space as possible so he knows I really meant what I said upstairs.

I hear the fridge open and smile. Maybe this won't be as bad as I first imagined. I look up and see that he grabbed a yogurt.

"There are spoons in the drawer to your left."

After I check my e-mails I just sit and wait for him to finish his breakfast while trying to start a conversation.

"Coulson called this morning. He said your first therapy appointment is tomorrow."

He stops eating and this look crosses his face. I know that look, he knows he'll have to relive everything he went through.

"She'll probably just go over the basics the first session."

The look fades.

"Okay."

I don't know if that 'okay' was for her coming tomorrow, or for me trying to reassure him.

"I heard someone down here."

I should've known he had super hearing.

"Yeah it was my friend Callie. She wanted to hang out today."

"What is she like?"

I look up at him and see that he is genuinely interested. I'm actually kind of surprised that he wants to know.

"Um Callie is a happy person, I guess is one word. She's kind of hard to get used to. She knew you were here though."

He freezes and I know I've said the wrong thing.

"No I didn't mean, she knew you, Bucky, were here. She just knew someone was here, she heard you in the shower."

He relaxes a bit.

"She wanted to meet you but I told her maybe some other time. I mean you don't have to meet her if you don't want to, she'll back down eventually and focus her attention on something else."

He nods his head and gets up throwing his trash away. Talking about the shower reminded me that he needs more clothes. Plus the fact that he's wearing what he was yesterday.

"Hey I know you just got here and you probably don't want to leave the house just yet but, you really need some more clothes or else you're gonna have to do the laundry everyday. I'm sure you don't want that. Unless you have more clothes hidden somewhere?"

"No I only have these. I was always given different clothes for different missions. I've never had to buy them before."

"Okay, well would you be up for some shopping today then. I mean I don't really have anything to do so I'm yours all day."

"I don't have any money with me."

"Don't worry about money, I have that covered."

"You shouldn't have to buy my clothes for me."

O God he's one of those people.

"It wouldn't really be me buying them. Shield would cover it. They cover all of their agents costs."

"I'm not an agent though."

"Doesn't matter, you're still a part of Shield correct?"

"I guess so but-"

"And you're technically an asset Right?"

He nods.

"Bu-"

"No, no buts. Why do I get the feeling that you're stalling?"

Because he keeps trying to get me to give up on the topic. I know how that goes, I've done it many time myself.

"I'm not sure I should be around anyone else yet."

He's afraid he'll hurt someone, which isn't a ridiculous thought. I would never let that happen though. That's why Coulson intrusted me with this.

"You'll be fine and I'll be there in case anything should happen."

I can tell that doesn't reassure him though. I don't blame him for thinking that I can't take him down if I had to, but I know if it came down to it I could and would.

"Trust me I'm a lot stronger than I look and I can do things other agents can't."

I can tell he want to ask me what I'm talking about but lets it drop. Everyone wants to know what I can do, but the only people who know are Coulson and myself.

Everyone else who knew is dead now.

"So what do you say? Do you want to go out and do something today, or do you just want to stay here and listen to me complain about how bored I am all day?" I

give him an innocent smile with an eye roll that says I'd be happy either way.

"Where are we going?"

Ha I've always known how to get what I want.

"I think we should go to the mall since they would have everything you need."

He nods his head and that's all I need to grab my keys and head for the door.

We get to the mall and I see that it isn't all that crowded. I figured it wouldn't be since the fair is going on right now. I find a parking spot right in front of Sports Authority since I'm sure he'll need some running shoes and stuff like that.

"Okay so we'll start here and then we'll head over to JCPenney and get the rest of the stuff there."

No response.

I can see already how much fun this will be.

We go inside and head to the shoe section of Sports Authority.

"Hi is there anything I can help you with?"

One of the store associates asks us.

He's looking at me when he says it and his eyes flicker to Bucky who is standing behind me. I can just feel Bucky giving him that "I'll kill you if you look at me the wrong way" stare. Even if he wasn't, he's still intimidating.

"No we're just browsing for now."

"Okay. Well if you need anything just grab one of us."

He said with a smile on his face even though I know he couldn't wait to get away from scary guy.

Yeah we are definitely going to have to work on that.

I turn around.

"Were you trying to scare him off?"

"No."

He says seeming to not know what I'm talking about.

"Mhm. Well maybe it's just the way you carry yourself that makes you like that."

I mean he looks perfectly normal but his personality just radiates off of him. Kind of like Callie's does, only Callie is someone that draws you in where as Bucky's puts you off. Hopefully as he sees this therapist he starts to get pieces of his old self back because I can't really see someone like Bucky, in the state he is now, interacting with Shield's agents.

"I believe you it's just you put off a warning with the way you look and act."

"I'm supposed to scare people. I don't know how to look a different way."

He obviously isn't getting it.

"No I didn't mean you scare them I just meant you make them uncomfortable."

We can't exactly walk around the mall if he keeps drawing everyone's attention, someone may notice him.

"Okay maybe you should smile. People like when you smile at them, right?"

He looks like he's about to bolt out of the store if I keep making him do things like this. It isn't like I'm trying to make him uncomfortable or anything, I just need him to not stand out so much and act like a normal Joe. Like someone you wouldn't notice if you passed them on the street.

"Okay maybe if you just try not to make eye contact with people so much, and don't look like you're so on edge."

"But I am on edge. You do realize that Hydra is still looking for me right?"

"I know Hydra is still looking for you, but they're not going to find you. Especially here of all places."

He doesn't look like he cares if they are watching him right this minute. I can understand that he will always be on edge as he should be. I sigh.

"At least try to act like you're not waiting for someone to attack us. Act more like you're just a regular guy going shopping with a friend, okay?"

He looks surprised that I just used the word friend to describe us.

"I can do that."

"Good. Now lets try and find you some shoes."

We leave the store after buying two new pairs of sneakers for him, even though he was very insistent on only getting one pair, I got two anyway. He'll learn at some point that the more you fight me the harder I am going to try and get my way.

"Alrighty then, onto the next store."

Have I said yet how much I hate shopping? No, well I hate it. Callie always makes me go shopping whenever she does, maybe because she knows how much I dislike it. I see shopping as a necessary evil. I only go when it's absolutely necessary. I get it from my father, who hated it slightly more then I did. I remember going shopping with the whole family and my father would sneak both of us away so we could get pizza from the cafe.

I am trying to keep up a good front for this trip though because I know if Bucky even suspects one hint of annoyance he'll know I hate shopping as much as he does and I'll break. So for now I LOVE shopping!

Yay!

"So what else do you need?"

We've reached JCPenney's.

"Clothes."

"Wow thanks smart-ass."

I hear a soft chuckle from him and smile.

"So it laughs? Amazing."

I say sarcastically.

"Men's section is upstairs."

We go up the escalator and reach the mens section.

"Do you even know what size you are?"

"Yes, and I think I can take it from here."

O okay, now we're acting like a normal guy.

"Okay then. I'm gonna go look at those recliners I saw downstairs."

Cause my feet are killing me. That's always been strange to me that I could run five miles straight without breaking a sweat, but walk around the mall for an hour and I have blisters. It must be something they pump in the air.

I get to the furniture section and find my new best friend.

"Hello chair. Meet ass."

This trip has been less action filled then I thought it would be. I thought we would have at least one incident I would have to take care of. Maybe Bucky's better adjusted than we think he is.

I take this time to pull out my cell phone and call my Aunt back.

_Ring ring_

…_._

_Ring Ring_

…_... _

"_Hello?" _

"Hey Jemma. How's it going?" _"_

_Good. I checked out the mines and everything seems to be up to standards." _

"Good. How's Al?" _"_

_He misses his big sister. I'm sure he would love to he__ar__ from you." _

Guilt starts to set in.

"I know, things have just been hectic here."

"_What's going on? Is something wrong? Do I need to come home?" _

"No everything is fine, I guess I'm just stressed about school and stuff. I'll be okay though, don't worry."

_All I ever do is worry about you Ari. It's my job, but as long as everything is alright-"_

My attention is pulled elsewhere as I see people running down the escalators looking scared. Oh no.

"Um Jenna can I call you back later. Someone is trying to call me on the other line."

_Of course. I'll talk to you later. Okay?" _

"Okay. Bye."

I hang up which is rude, but I don't really have time to analyze my manners right now.

I get up and stop someone as they're trying to run away.

"Hey what's going on up there?"

I say thinking please don't be Bucky, please don't be Bucky.

"Some crazy guy just went ninja on one of the workers."

God dammit and I thought we would walk away from this without an incident. Well I guess I spoke to soon. I let go of the guy and start running towards the panic, which earns me a lot of weird stares. I reach the top floor and see more people scattering. I run toward the mens section and see Bucky standing there with his hand holding some employee's head down on a display.

I run over to them.

"Bucky what is going on?"

"He's a plant. He was waiting for me. He's Hydra."

"No, No, No I don't even know who Hydra is please don't kill me."

The associate says, who clearly isn't Hydra. He looks like he could barely lift ten pounds.

"He isn't spying on you. He's just an employee. Bucky you aren't going to kill him right?"

I say trying to diffuse the situation, people have stopped and started staring now. I see a couple of teenagers pull out their phones to start recording the crazy guy.

I look at Bucky who, I have to say, looks scary as shit right now. I guess I'm seeing the Winter Soldier up close and personal.

"He's Hydra. He's going to report back to them. They'll come to get me. They'll kill you and everyone you love, is that what you want!"

He yells at me.

"Bucky he is an employee of this store. You remember the store we're in right now."

He looks up at me and I can see a flicker of Bucky again so I keep going.

"Bucky he is not Hydra, he's scared. Look at him."

I say while I point to the poor guy being held down by Bucky's metal arm.

"Hey what's your name?"

I say to the guy hoping that he'll work with me on this.

"Clark."

He says with a scared breath.

"Bucky look at Clark, he is not a threat to anyone. You need to calm down and let him go."

I move forward and gently touch the arm that's holding Clark down.

"Bucky you need to listen to me okay? Let him go."

I move my hand down his arm and wrap my fingers around his wrist. I feel them start to relax a little.

"Come on Bucky, just let go."

I whisper as I pull on his wrist and he lets go, all without breaking eye contact with me. Once I get his hand in between both of mine I tell Clark to walk away slowly. He doesn't protest and does exactly as I say.

I still haven't broken eye contact with Bucky yet.

"Are you okay now Bucky?"

His eyes lose their coldness and I can see that he's finally back to reality. He looks around him and I can tell he already feels the remorse setting in.

"How about we get out of here?"

He nods his head and moves his eyesight to the ground, as to not make anyone else afraid. I still have a hold of his hand and for some reason I feel like he might revert if I let go so I pull him behind me as we start to walk. I grab the bags of clothes and shoes. No one stops us, which is good for me because I don't know if I could pull him out of another episode.

Once we finally get outside I let go of his hand so that I can find my keys in my bag. I find them and we get in the car. We just sit for a couple of minutes in silence. I have so many questions right now but I'll let him collect himself.

So I just start driving instead.

By the time we reach the house it's almost seven O'clock and starting to get dark outside. We both get out of the car at the same time and start walking to the door. The silence is tense now and I have no idea how to break it easily.

Bucky hasn't even such as glanced in my direction since we left the store, he's back to being the non communicative Bucky that I met Yesterday. It's a step in the wrong direction. I felt like I was so close to getting him to feel comfortable around me, then again he may never be comfortable around me.

We get inside the house and Bucky goes directly to the living room. I follow him to see what he's doing and I find him looking around. He then goes to the kitchen and does the same thing. It dawns on me that he's checking to see if anyone got inside of the house while we were gone.

"Bucky no one's here. It's just us."

He doesn't even looks at me, doesn't even acknowledge my existence. Which pisses me off.

"So we're back to not talking now?"

All he does is walk past me to the stairs.

"You better not go into my room!"

I sigh and go back into the kitchen.

I decide since he's chosen not to talk to me, that I would call my Aunt back.

_Ring ring_

…

_Ring Ring_

…

_Ring-_

"_Hello" _

I still haven't figured out why she says hello like she doesn't already know who it is.

"Hey just calling you back. I know it's late there, I just wanted to say goodnight to Alec."

"_Of course let me go get him." _

I hear her calling him in the background and then I hear her hand the phone over.

"_Ari! I miss you." _

Just hearing his tiny voice makes me wish I was there.

"I miss you to bud. What have you been doing with Aunt Jenna?" _"_

_We went to this mine and it was so cool. At first I was scared cause it was dark, but then they gave me this hat with a light and let me be leader." _

I can tell how excited he was to tell me that.

"O wow they must've really believed in you to make you leader." _"_

_I felt like a superhero, like Iron Man or Captain America." _

Those were his two favorites of the Avengers. He talks about them all of the time, he basically has a shrine in his room dedicated to Iron Man.

"That's because you are a superhero little dude."

"_I'm not a superhero silly. I could be a sidekick though!" _

"Heck yeah you could. You could be the best sidekick that there ever was."

"_I have to think of a super secret code name." _

I love talking to him because he still has his imagination, which is something I never really had a lot of.

"Well maybe you can dream up one while you're sleeping."

"_Yes! Okay then I gotta go Ari so I can __go to sleep and dream__. Goodnight Ari. Love you."_

"I love you too, Al."

I hear him hand the phone back the Jemma.

"_Alright then I guess I gotta go tuck in the hero. Night." _

"Night."

The phone click and I hang up on my end too.

God I miss my baby brother. When he's not here things are so boring, which probably makes me a boring person but I don't care.

I walk over to the fridge and get a water. When I turn around I'm met by a very angry looking Bucky, who I could've sworn was still upstairs. I grip my water tighter.

"What the hell! Don't sneak up on me like that."

All Bucky does though is take my water from my hand and puts it on the table behind him. He then looks at me again.

"What in the hell were you thinking?"

He says in a menacing whisper. Now I'm confused. He sneaks up on me and I'm the one who's at fault?

"What are you talking about?"

He takes a step forward. I already have my back against the fridge so I can't go anywhere and even if I wasn't against the fridge I wouldn't back down.

"I'm talking about the mall."

Ohh.

"You mean your episode? The one I helped you come back from, by the way."

"You shouldn't have done that."

"So I shouldn't have helped the defenseless civilian you were convinced was Hydra?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, please enlighten me on what I should have done?"

"Don't you realize how powerful I am, or are you stupid?"

O hells no.

"You did not just call me stupid. Please God tell me he did not just call me stupid."

I say looking up at the ceiling. He takes another step forward.

"I could have killed you."

He's directly in my face now, inches away from me.

"I could have grabbed you by the throat and strangled you."

He says staring at my throat, which is staring to feel dry.

"I could have snapped your neck. Do you see this?"

He moves his metal hand into my line of sight.

"Do you know how easy it would be to kill you. It would take a fraction of a second."

He move his hand and put his fingers gently around my throat. The metals is cool, but warmer than I thought it would be.

"But you didn't. You stopped yourself before it got to bad. Maybe you're not as monstrous as you think you are."

He yanks his hand from my throat and punches the fridge right next to my head. I hear metal grind against metal.

"Stop! Stop trying to see good in me, my best friend tried to see the good in me. You saw what that got him."

He backs away from me. The look on his face betrays what he's saying though. I can see the desperation in his eyes, it's barely there but I see it. He doesn't even really know me and yet he's pushing me away to try and keep me safe.

"Yeah I saw what happened, everyone did, and yeah I could have given up on you, did Steve give up on you though?"

I say using the Captain's first name hoping that will connect better.

"He's an idiot then, too."

He says it like he's far away. Like he's in a memory.

I was about to tell him he needs to let us help him when he grabs my car keys and starts walking toward the door.

"And where are you going now? With my car keys?"

"Out."

He says and then he walks out my front door.

Maybe for the last time.


	6. Friend Date

**I did it! I finally posted on time with my schedule, it's even a day earlier than I planned to. So, yay! If I'm being honest though, I wasn't even planning on finishing this chapter until Sunday which actually means Monday or Tuesday but, when I came into my room and checked my phone a couple of hours ago I saw that I had a review. I was super excited because I've only had two reviews so far and when I read it I literally did a happy dance. So thank you rats xp for the review and thank you for following/favoriting my story you did make my day. I also want to thank Kamaria Jay for following and LucyRider17 for following/favoriting. Whenever I have someone follow, favorite, or review it makes me smile because I know that you guys like what I'm writing. So yeah, I couldn't wait to put this out after I finished writing it an hour ago. **

**One last thing I do obviously love reviews and such so please let me know if you like this story. Also I'm up for any suggestions on more things you want to see such as more action scenes or things along those lines. I do already know where this story is going and I have some twists and turns I'm going to dish out in coming chapters. So read on….**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or anything relating to Marvel in this story. I do however own my OCs so there's that.**

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**This chapter has been edited.**

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"I should have done this a long time ago."

Coulson says while pulling me along behind him. We're in a tunnel system underground at one of Shield's "special" prisons. I don't know why we're here but I have a feeling it's for me.

"I new that this would happen at some point. Why didn't I trust my instincts?"

I still have no idea what he's talking about but the way he says it makes me feel desperate.

"Coulson, you don't understand. Please don't do this to me! I'm not a criminal. I can control it."

I say pleadingly.

"I do understand Aria. I understand that you're a monster. A monster who needs to be locked-up to insure the safety of others."

"I'm not a monster though. I'll do whatever you want me to do, just please don't do this. Please!"

I say as we get to the specialized cell I can tell was made just for me.

"Please." I whisper.

Why is he doing this?

"If I don't put a stop to this now, you'll kill more people and I can't have that."

Coulson says with a coldness in his eyes that I have never seen before.

"I haven't killed anyone though. I would never hurt an innocent, you know that."

"I saw what you did Aria. We all did. You don't believe me? Look for yourself."

I look around and see that we're no longer underground. We're on a hilltop in the sun, I look down at the bottom of the hill and I almost fall to my knees.

All around us are dead bodies, dead bodies of the people I'm closest to.

I see Callie. My whole family, including my sweet baby brother. This can't be happening.

"No! No, God please, no"

I scream because this couldn't have been me. I would never hurt the people I love. I look over at Coulson to get some kind of explanation of how this happened but he isn't there anymore. He's one of the bodies on the ground now.

I'm alone. I did this, everyone I love dead because of me. Tears start rolling down my face and it gets hard to breath-

I wake-up with a gasp. I start sucking in long, deep breaths of air to calm myself down. That was one of the worse dreams I've had in a while. I used to get them all of the time, not so much anymore though. Not since I distanced myself from Shield. I don't know why they started coming back.

The dreams used to be so bad that I would wake up not breathing. I would go into panic attacks and it would take forever to calm me down. I had the biggest fear of hurting someone that I loved. I used to think that if I took one wrong step they would lock me up in a cell and leave me to rot. I know Coulson would never let that happen though. He always agreed with my parents on that front.

My breathing is back to normal now. My body aches and I realize that I fell asleep on the couch in the living room, waiting for Bucky to come back from wherever he went. I hear a soft click of a door closing. It sounds like the front door so I get up from my seat and go into the hallway.

I see a bag on the table near the door. I go over to it and see that it's the clothes I bought Bucky, next to my car keys.

I open the front door and look outside, that's when I see him. Walking away from the house.

"Bucky!"

I call to him but he doesn't turn around, only keeps walking. Great now I gotta chase him down. I run outside of the house, without any shoes on, and catch up to him.

"Where are you even going?"

I slow down to match his pace.

"I can't stay here anymore."

He says in an emotionless voice.

"So after only one day you're already ready to leave?"

"I have to leave."

"And why is that, because of today? It wasn't even that bad, and like I said earlier you pulled yourself out of it."

"Next time I might not be able to though."

"Okay can you stop walking for a second so that we can an actual conversation?"

He stops walking but doesn't look at me.

"I think you're slightly over-reacting by leaving, and where are you gonna go huh? Do you have a secret group of assassin friends that you haven't told anyone about?"

He says nothing.

"You have your therapy appointment tomorrow anyways. You can't leave just yet."

He can't leave yet. I don't why I'm so adamant about this, all I know is I can't let him leave.

"And what do you think Director Coulson would say to this, if he knew about what happened today?"

"He would understand that it was your first experience in a normal outside setting, in a seriously long time, and would commend you for doing so well up to that point."

Which isn't a compete lie. It isn't the complete truth either though. Coulson would understand the episode in the mall but he definitely wouldn't like what happened when we got back to the house. He wouldn't like that Bucky basically threatened me, and trust me I know that I should be angry about that but for some reason I'm just not.

If it were any other circumstances I would be pissed, with Bucky it's different though. I feel a connection with him, like we're kindred spirits, and I can't let him go yet without helping him get to where he needs to be in his life. Which is back to being the old Bucky, the Bucky that was Steve Roger's best friend.

"Please stay. You have to remember that I'm responsible for you right now, and if you just up and leave it's gonna raise some eyebrows. I'll probably get in trouble and have to fill out all this paper work on what happened. Then I'll have to explain to Captain America where the hell his best friend went and why I wasn't keeping a closer eye on him and-"

"Okay I get it."

The ranting always works.

"Can we go back in the house now? My feet are gonna get frostbitten if I stay out here any longer."

He takes another longing look at the road in front of us, like he's deciding if he wants to book-it and be free from all of this, or come back with me. After a moment he looks at me and nods, so I wave my hand in front of myself. Signaling him to go ahead of me.

We get inside the house.

"Why would you even want me to stay? I made it clear how easily I could hurt you. You should have given up on me by now."

That statement only makes me feel worse for him. I'm sure that's all he's known for so long. People giving up on him. People trying to control him.

"I don't give-up. Especially on people I can still see good in, people like myself."

"I'm not anything like you."

He says looking at his metal arm and for some reason it makes me grab his hand.

"You have no idea how wrong you are."

He gives me a questioning look but I dodge it.

"You didn't ask to be an amnesiac assassin okay. Hydra is the monster, not you. So stop acting like you're not worth saving because you are. You are apart of Shield now, and we don't turn our backs on our own. So suck it up buttercup cause you won't be able to get rid of us that easily."

Hopefully he considers what I've just said because it was the truth. Now that I've meet him and learned of his back-story I won't be able to let him go without at least trying to help him.

"Well, I'm tired so I'm going to bed."

It's been another long day and all I want is to sleep. I let go of his hand and start up the steps when I feel him lightly grab my arm to stop me and I turn around to face him.

"Thank you."

I look into his eyes and for the first time notice how beautiful they are, like a combination of blue and green, like the ocean on a cool summer day.

I shake off those thoughts and come back to myself.

"You're welcome."

* * *

"Friend Date! God I've missed these sooo much."

Callie says which makes me feel kinda bad about not spending more time with her.

I decided when I woke-up this morning that I was going to make an effort to hang out with Callie as much as I could before she left for her summer trip.

"I know me too. Sorry I've been AWOL for the past couple of weeks."

"No worries. I'm just happy you decided to get your butt outta that house."

We walk toward one of the little boutique shops in the town square.

Callie loves to go to these types of shops. She likes finding things that no one else has. Where as I would rather grab a quick coffee, go home, and watch TV or a movie. Usually Callie does whatever I want to do on our "friend dates" but this time I wanted to do something that she love to do.

"Hey look at this scarf! Isn't it cool."

"Um I guess so, I mean it does have cats on it."

"Exactly! I have to buy it. Here hold my coffee real quick."

She goes to buy the hideous scarf. Callie is obsessed with cats, she's wanted one since she was a little girl. She could never get one though because her mom's allergic so she makes up for it in buying (and wearing) cat type things. I swear when she gets her own place she's gonna have about thirty cats.

"O my God they have a matching broach!"

I laugh because Callie is the only person under sixty who would be excited about a broach.

While she's finding all her cat treasures I start walking around the shop. I'm happy that I get to spend some time with Callie but I can't say that that's the only reason I wanted to get out of the house. I needed time away from the silence and tenseness.

Bucky hasn't really talked to me since the fight after the mall. When he does talk to me it's because it's a necessity and it usually comes in one or two word syllables. It stung a little at first because I felt like we had actually made some progress. At least I can take the comfort in knowing that he is talking to someone.

The therapist did come, and at the exact second she was supposed to. I swear that those people have internal clocks because there is no way they're that punctual on their own. She didn't look how I expected her to either.

I mean I didn't expect her to be old and kinda grouchy but... okay that's exactly how I expected her to look. At first I thought there was some sort of mistake because there was no way this women could be an expert therapist.

When she walked into my house I first noticed her super high heels, and I mean like five inches. I never wear heels because it just isn't practical for me but I guess she likes being forever uncomfortable. Anyway I then noticed her face of course, and saw that she was not in fact old or grouchy looking.

After rudely staring at her for about three minutes (man I really gotta stop doing that) she broke the silence and I learn that her name was Anna, she is a twenty-five year old, and she's also like freaking gorgeous. She has long blond hair, bright green eyes that are behind glasses (which would look nerdy on anyone else but not her apparently), and she's taller than me.

I mean I'm not really comparing her to myself because who does that. Not me that's who, but it's sort of hard not to notice when someone is about six inches taller than you and I'm not a short person. I'm 5'6 so she must be like at least 5'9.

The worst thing about it though is that she is extremely nice and good mannered. I asked her how Shield even found her being that she's so young, and she told me that they scooped her up right out of college. She didn't even understand why they chose her. I know why they chose her though, she must have been the top of her class or a genius or something to that effect.

Even after she told me all of this I still felt something was just… off. I know that I'm probably a bad person for feeling like something was wrong with her since she seems to be a genuinely kind person, I have no idea why I don't like her. I mean I'm friends with plenty of beautiful people.

Callie actually looks a little like Anna and I get along with Callie perfectly so it can't be that. It's just something about Anna that made my senses go on high alert for some reason, at first I thought It was just because she's a therapist and I hate going to therapy but I would hope I'm not that quick to judge someone.

I'm hoping I figure it out though, because I won't be able to go on much longer without having to completely vacate my house whenever she comes over. I mean I can't exactly tell her that she isn't welcome anymore. She has to be good at her job for Coulson to trust her with this, and if she can help Bucky regain his memories who am I to make waves?

"Hey you wanna go grab something to eat? I'm starving"

Callie says from behind me shaking me from my thoughts.

"Yeah, sure."

We get inside of the diner and sit in one of the booths. While we wait for our waitress to come back and take our food orders Callie starts a conversation.

"What were you thinking about when I walked up to you in the shop?"

"Nothing really. I was just looking around, spacing."

I can't tell her the real reason I was spacing so I just leave it at that.

"How's Max doing?"

"Who?"

I have no idea who she's talking about.

"Um your cousin. Who's staying with you, remember?"

O yeah, "Max".

"He's doing well. He's recovering faster than we thought."

"Is he in physical therapy?"

When she says that I have an idea spark in my head. I mean I can't tell her the real reason why Anna's there but I can tell Callie about Anna. I just have to hold back a little bit of the truth.

"Yeah he's been seeing this physical therapist for the last couple of weeks."

"How does he like them?"

"He likes her I guess."

I say while picking at my straw and slightly accentuating the 'her', hoping that she'll pick up on it. What I said isn't far from the truth. Bucky does seem to like her alright. He still hasn't completely opened up to her yet but I think she might be able to get him to.

How do I know this? Well I'm a complete eavesdropper when it comes to thing like this. Especially when my gut tells me something's wrong with this women.

"Why do you say it like that?"

"Say it like what?"

"Like you would rather tear your own eye out than talk about her?"

"I don't know, Anna and I just don't have personalities that mash well together."

"O, so she's a complete bitch?"

"No actually. She's the exact opposite. She's really nice."

"What's wrong with her then?"

"I don't know yet. Everything about her checks out, I just have this pit in my stomach, like something is wrong with her."

"Well you know what they say, always trust your gut. How does she interact with Max?"

"Max isn't one to open up easily but she's actually getting him to talk to her. Which is something I haven't been able to do."

"Ohh."

Callie says with a smile on her face.

"What's ohhh?"

Has she had some kind of epiphany that I haven't?

"You're jealous."

I look up immediately.

"What no. No, I am not jealous of Anna. Why would I ever be jealous of Anna?"

"Because you like Max. Don't you?"

Is she sippin on crazy juice.

"No I do not like Max. I already told you he's like my cousin or brother. I could never feel that way about him."

There is absolutely no way I have feelings for Bucky. I don't even really know him. Plus he obviously doesn't like me whatsoever since he refuses to talk to me and all. If I told Callie that though she would say that he's playing "hard to get".

"Are you absolutely sure because all the things you've told me point to jealousy. I mean you said you didn't like this women from the start, and now she's gotten close to Max. That says jealousy to me."

Why did I ever open my big mouth in the first place?

"I'm definitely not jealous. I just have a bad feeling about her, okay?"

"Okay I believe you."

We order our food and the earlier conversation is finally put to rest. How could she possibly think I have feelings for Bucky/Max. I mean maybe looking in from an unbiased point I could see how you would come to that conclusion. I do have some kind of sympathy for what Bucky's going through, but how can I not he lost everything he had, and he can't even remember what he had. Nobody deserves that, okay I know of a couple people in particular that deserve that, but Bucky definitely does not.

We eat in silence. Once we're done we split the check, even though I know Callie wants to pay because that's who she is. We leave the diner and start walk towards Callie's car.

"Hey you wanna come over and watch a movie? We just had surround sound put in."

I'm just about to say no when I think you know what? Why should I worry so much about Bucky if he doesn't even care to talk to me.

"You know what? That sounds great."

"Sweet, slumber party!"

Callie says as she does a dance of spinning in circles, and I start laughing.

* * *

"Breakfast!"

Callie yells, waking me from a very sound sleep. Thank God I wasn't dreaming of anything in this one. I've been having nightmares ever since that night. I don't know why, maybe it's because Shield is back in my life and I still have that fear of getting locked-up. Even though I would want to be put away if I was a danger to anyone.

They come almost every night though. It started out with just Shield affiliates and agents coming to put me away. Coulson of course was first, after that it was Natasha (aka Black Widow), then it was Captain America himself which was weird seeing as how I've never met him. Then it was people who are even closer to me like my Aunt Jenna and my oldest brother Tyler. My parents were even in one of them.

"Are you coming down anytime soon?"

Callie says sounding annoyed.

"Coming!"

I brush my teeth and then head downstairs. I didn't even get a chance to brush my hair, fearing the wrath of Callie.

Of course when I walk into the kitchen all is forgiven.

Callie must have been working on this for hours before I woke-up. There's a pile of pancakes, bacon, toast, fresh fruit, eggs, and other stuff that I'm not particularly concerned with because BACON!

I run over and grab a piece.

"Did I ever tell you that you're my best friend?"

Callie laughs.

"I know, I'm the best."

"Yep."

It's all I can say because I have so much food in my mouth.

"Well I figured you needed some homemade cooking before I left. Especially since you can't cook eggs without burning them."

True. I can't cook any kind of food to save my life. That's why I basically live on cereal and take-out.

"Thank you then."

The only way I ever get to eat like this is if I come over to Callie's house and either she or her mom cooks it for me. Sometimes I think that Callie's mom feels so bad that my mother is dead that she tries to mother me whenever she gets the chance.

"You're welcome. Plus I felt like you needed it considering the whole Max thing."

I stop shoveling for a moment to give her a look that says quit while she's ahead of the game. I knew that she would have to bring it up again, Callie just can't let things go.

"There is no Max thing. He is a person who is staying in my home for the time being, nothing else okay?"

"Alright."

She says while sitting down to eat her own food. The silence only remains for a minute though.

"Why don't you just tell Max how you feel about Anna though. Have you ever thought that maybe he's getting the same vibes from her that you have?"

Dammit Callie stop trying to make me think so early in the morning.

"No I haven't, but like I said he seems to like her alright."

"Okay well it still doesn't hurt to ask."

Yeah sometimes it does.

"Okay I'll ask him."

I probably won't.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay? I know you're not too excited to go home yet."

Callie says as I open the door to leave after the marvelous breakfast.

"Yeah I'm sure. I gotta face it sometime or another, and better sooner rather then later right?"

"Yeah I guess. Just remember I leave this Friday. We probably need to say our goodbyes before then because you know my mom's gonna be a wreck."

"Don't worry I'll be here bright and early. You better start packing now, It'll take you about five days just to figure out what shoes you want to bring."

"Ha ha very funny, at least I have style."

"O and I don't? Is what you're saying?"

We both look at what I chose to pick out and wear from her closet. Which is a pair of sweat pants and a plain gray T-shirt. We both start laughing.

"God I'm gonna miss you so much Ari. You better call all of the time and Skype at least once a week. Or else."

"Don't worry we'll talk plenty. You gotta let me leave to miss me though."

"Alright, alright, go before I change my mind."

I get in my car and start to drive home. Instead of going home though I go to one of the nature walkways near my house. I discovered all of them when I was a little kid. I always loved exploring new places, especially nature.

I get out of my car and start walking on one of the paths. As I'm walking I'm reminded of how much I missed doing this. It's been to long time since I came up here, it's so quiet and peaceful. I can actually here myself think for once which is a nice change. I always have something else to do that distracts me from just thinking.

My mothers birthday is tomorrow, or at least it would have been. It makes me miss her even more. I mean there's always this hole I have that I'll never be able to fill, but I can usually push it in the back of my mind. Now that I can let myself feel it I realize how little I think about those types of things, my parents deaths being one of them.

I was fifteen when they died, or were killed, and so many things happened right after that I guess I never really mourned there deaths. The official story is that they died in car crash. Hit by a drunk driver who was never found.

The real story is worse though, so much worse. To know the whole story you have to go back, to the moment I was born. The moment I was born was the moment their lives were destined to end.

* * *

**A/N: I know what you're thinking and I know It's angry type thinking but, I promise you I will work on the next chapter and have it out as soon as possible. Obviously the next chapter will basically be Aria's back-story and will delve into why she is who she is now. I couldn't put it all in here or else it would be to long and I know Bucky wasn't in this chapter all that much but, I wanted to show how untrusting Aria and Bucky actually are of each other. So stay tuned for the next chapter…. **


	7. The story of the past

**I'm finally updating after forever. The reason it's taken me so long is I got my first review that criticized my work. I know now how stupid it was that I let it get to me for even a second. I said in the very first chapter that there were most likely going to be mistakes in this story. I also said that I wanted reviews. The good ones and the ones criticizing because I feel it makes you wiser. The way it was written is what made me get down on myself. If you do post a review criticizing my grammar would you please inform me on what I am doing wrong. I figured out that I was using to many commas and I have tried to fix that in this chapter. I didn't really think my grammar was all that atrocious but I will try to fix it in the future. So now that I have that off of my chest I would like to say thanks to the people who did look past the grammatical errors and stuck with this story. Writing does give me joy and as long as it makes me happy I will keep at it. There was one other reason why it took a little longer for me to finish this chapter. I was glued to the television all week because of the things going on in my hometown of Baltimore. I just moved from there to Oregon last August and I will always have Baltimore in my heart. **

**So, I got my first author favorite and follow. I was super excited when I saw that, it made me feel more confident in my story so thank you FireChild24 for that, and for favorting and following the story. Also a shout-out to sweetsweetsacrifice for favoriting andJoySalvatore1 for favoriting and following my story. Seriously you're all the bomb.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Marvel universe in this story.**

* * *

**This chapter has been edited, not much though so that's good. **

* * *

The beginning of my story starts out just like everybody's does, with a first breath.

I was born on December 16, 1996 to two parents. A loving mother and father. Melanie and Lucas Parker. I was born into an already full family. My parents had five children before I came along, all of them boys. We lived in a nice house in the country far away from other civilization. I grew up a happy little girl. I didn't have any problems in my life. Up until the accident anyways.

So let's start at that.

This is the story of how I found out my parents were agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Like I said before, I grew up in a good environment with five protective and loving older brothers. Going from oldest to youngest there's Tyler, Marcus, Xavier and Xander (the twins), and Johnathon. I had always been closest to Ty and John. I looked up to Ty, it probably had to do with him being the oldest. John and I on the other hand were close in the way where we told each other everything. I had always considered them two of my best friends. Marcus was always off doing his own thing and Xavier and Xander were inseparable. It was like they had their own world that none of the other siblings could reach.

My parents had a lot of money. I mean they weren't filthy rich but we had enough to share, which is exactly what my parents did. They would give as much money as they feasibly could to different charities. With the mining business it made sense of how we had all the money. No one would ever expect that my parents weren't really self-made entrepreneurs.

I guess I now know why they weren't around all that much. I was basically raised by my brothers and my grandparents on my mother's side.

My grandparents acted as parent figures for me, they were always there for me no matter what. I was closest to my Nana. She was like the mother mine was supposed to be.

She would always sing to me to help me fall asleep and I was raised on her cooking. When I would ask her where my mommy was she would tell me how important my parents were and how much they loved my brothers and I even though they couldn't be there for us all of the time.

Things like that started a lot of arguments in my household. My mother and grandmother used to fight a lot. I think Nana felt a certain contempt towards my mother, like she was disappointed in her for leaving her children alone all of the time. I would hear them fighting sometimes and hear my Nana tell her that her children needed their mother and father. I know how hard my mother tried and I will always be proud of her for trying to make the world a better place.

So, onto the accident.

I was eight when it happened. I was in my adventurous phase in life (one of many) and I was starting to become curious as to what my parents were hiding. Even at that age I always felt like there was something that they weren't saying. Something everyone but me knew, and I was sick of it.

I remember waking up really early in the morning because I knew that's when my parents left to go to 'work'. I got dressed in all black like I was some super secret spy, or at least that's what I told myself to justify sneaking around behind everyone's backs.

When I heard my parents getting their coffee I snuck down the staircase and got in their. I remember cramming my body in the covered compartment in the trunk of the car. I got scared when I heard them come out of the house and open the car door. I almost backed out at that point but I told myself I was gonna get to the bottom of all this and catch them in the act. The driving there was the worst part though. Listening and feeling the car hit bumps and pot holes in the road. I was lucky I didn't get a concussion from my head banging off of the floor of the car so much.

The car stopped after about ten minutes, which felt like forever being stuck in that hole. I heard my parents get out of the car but knew to wait until I couldn't hear them anymore. When I couldn't hear anything I climbed out of the trunk and was surprised to see forest surrounding me.

My parents weren't in sight, no one was in sight actually. I wasn't afraid of my surroundings though. I had always felt at peace in the woods. It was my sanctuary. I walked around the car to try and see if I could get a read on which direction they might have gone in. I found some shoe prints near the doors that pointed north so I followed them.

It didn't last for long though because the tracks went cold almost immediately. I looked around for anything to point me in the right direction. I had almost given up and started toward the car when I caught something giving off a glare on the ground. I pushed away the leaves and pine needles to find a steal door. I pulled it up and was met by a dark pit. My little idiotic self decided to climb down the pit of despair instead of run for the hills like a reasonably smart child would. Lets just say I wasn't the sharpest tack in the box. I reached the bottom which was lit, thank God and started walking down a corridor. I took the first right and what I was met with at the end was more than a little surprising me. I had just happened upon what I though was a secret society, which come to find out wasn't that far off from the truth.

I didn't know then that I had just walked into a Shield underground base. One that was supposed to be hidden by the way so I always wondered why the door wasn't guarded. I mean I guess it would've drawn more attention then was wanted but come on if you wanna stay secret you need better security. I suppose having an entire base filled with Shield agents would deter some though. Anyway, that was when I started to feel a little frightened. I had no idea what I just happened upon.

After standing out in the open for about a minute I finally got some brains and decided to hide behind one of the huge columns near the wall. It was a good spot because I could see everything yet nobody could see me. You would think spies would be more aware of their surroundings wouldn't you? Nope. Or at least they weren't on their guard for a little girl who just infiltrated their base in about five minutes.

I spotted one of my parents friends, Mr. Coulson, in the bustle. I remember being super excited when my parent would invite Mr. Coulson over. He was always so much fun. He would bring us stuff too, which didn't hurt. I remember being introduced to the superhero world when he brought over a bunch of Captain America comic books.

I was confused as to why he would be here. My parents said they had met him in college. What would he have to do with all of this? I decided to try and follow him because I thought that he could lead me to my parents. I moved fast and kept out of sight so I wouldn't get caught before I could get to the bottom of the secrecy surrounding this place. He stopped at a glass door that led to a room which looked like, from what I could see, a lab. He input a code into the keypad by the top of the door. He was to far away for me to see what the code was though and before I could think of a way to go in after him he was gone. I was angry at first but I figured he would come back out at some point so I waited instead of searching for my parents any further.

I was stuck hiding behind a file cabinet for about ten minutes when a new opportunity showed itself. Someone new was at the door. It looked like he was some sort of doctor or something since he was in scrubs. It was than that I decided Coulson was taking to long, and I wasn't about to miss another opportunity like this. As the man imputed the code I checked to see if anyone around was paying attention before I made a break for the door.

"Hey! Kid wait you can't go in there!"

So.. my covers blown now.

I looked behind me and saw that the voice belonged to a scary looking guy dressed in all black. A scary guy who was now running towards me by the way, but I hadn't come this far to be stopped so I pumped my legs harder and got to the door right before it closed. I was in.

I knew it wouldn't last for long so I started walking around quickly to try and find anything that would help me make sense of all this.

I heard the door reopen. "A little girl just ran in here. We gotta find her before she gets hurts herself or someone else."

Psh like I would somehow hurt myself. I think I'm a little more observant than that.

"How in the hell did she even get on the base?" I heard a new voice say.

I didn't look behind me though so I couldn't see who it was. I took in my surroundings. It was a laboratory of some sort. I saw people with masks working with test tubes, and I saw others working on electronics. I didn't see my parents or Coulson though so I kept walking.

"Make sure these are destroyed as fast as possible. We don't need anyone getting their hands on it."

Wait. I new that voice.

I rounded a corner and saw Coulson, and my parents standing next to him.

"Yes sir, right away." Some other guy dressed in black holding a shiny case said.

My mother started talking then. "I really thought that this was it. It could've done so much good." She looked so disappointed.

My father tried to comfort her. "It still can. We've learned from our mistakes and now we can fix it. We can still accomplish our goal. We can still help people."

My mother just smiled at him.

"Believe me it's for the best that we destroy it. If it got into the wrong hands it could be catastrophic." Coulson said.

That's when the scary guy from earlier came up to them. "Sir we have a problem."

"What's happened?" Coulson said with a serious look on his face.

My parents just started talking to each other and minding their own business. I guess they weren't the ones who usually dealt with stuff like this.

"I just saw a little girl run into the lab."

"What. How is that possible. Where is she."

"We're locating her now."

"Well what did she look like?"

"She's around eight or nine, small, dark hair, tanned skin."

That's when my parents chimed in "Wait, you're talking about a little girl?"

Coulson seemed interested. "Do you know something that we don't. Like an organization with little girl assassins?" he said laughing to himself.

No one else seemed to get what he thought was funny.

What's an assassin?

Anyway my father said "No, but we do know a girl that fits that description perfectly. A little girl who's to curious for her own good."

I've been found out. I thought that I would be able to keep my secret identity a little longer than that.

"You can't mean Ari can you?" Coulson said not believing that I would do such a thing.

"If my daughter's on this base we have to find her. Now!" My mother said in her mom voice.

Which means you better get your asses moving before I move them for you.

Everyone went into motion at the same time. My parents started calling out my name and telling me I wasn't in trouble. Uhuh right. Coulson told the man with the case to go and destroy whatever was in it. So now everyone was looking for me and I was hiding right next to them. Even though I found out that my parents were lying to me I still wasn't done yet. I mean I was already up the creek so I might as well keep going. I decided to follow the guy with the case. Which would turn out to be one of the stupidest things I've ever done.

We left the lab and I started following him around the base. He came to a new door. Only this one was completely made out of steel and had two different key pads. He opened the door and since there was no one else around I figured I'd follow him in. I mean I have nothing else to lose. I'm already grounded if not locked in my room for eternity. I followed him inside. This room was a lot different than the other one though. It was a large room with shelf upon shelf lining the walls and everything in between. The shelves had different types of boxes and cases on them. Most of them where labeled with numbers. I hid behind one of them in the ones in the back and watched the guy go to a large cylinder that was siting next to a table.

He grabbed the gloves off of the hook on the wall and put them on. He put a mask on next. He then opened the case which was to far away from me to see what was in it and pressed some buttons on the keyboard next to the cylinder thingy. The cylinder opened up on the side and the guy reached in the case took out a tube with a strange looking liquid in it. He put the tube in the cylinder and closed the door. He started typing on the keyboard and all of a sudden the tube inside the cylinder was just gone.

I swear I had my eyes on it the whole time and the tube just vanished. Wow. That's the only word I could use t describe it. Wow.

He reopened the cylinder and went to grab another tube, but before he could a voice came on the radio. "Caleb. Do you copy?"

The guy or 'Caleb' grabbed the radio off of his belt and said "Yep. What do you need?"

"All agents are required in the lobby. We have a situation."

"Is it the girl? Really all of this for some brat?" Who are you callin a brat. Butt-face.

"It seems she's a very smart brat. We have to find her before this gets out of hand and the whole base ends up getting shut down."

"Alright I'll be there in a minute." He put the radio back in his pocket and closed the case.

Once he took his mask and gloves off he placed the case on one of the shelves and put a label with a number on it.

"Kid you better hope to god I'm not the one that finds you." He said to himself, obviously since he didn't even know that the brat was in the room with him.

He walked out and I heard the door latch behind him. I came out from behind the shelf and stood there for a second. I almost couldn't believe I had gotten this far. I would be an awesome spy! Okay enough patting myself on the back (for now).

I though of what to do next. I should probably walk out of this room and find my parents before things got any worse for me. Nah. I was way to curious of what was in the secret case. Plus I wanted to play with the cylinder thing that made stuff go bye bye. I walked over to the shelf with the case on it, of course this guy had to be Bigfoot tall so there was no way I was reaching it on my own. I grabbed the chair in the corner and was able to reach it on my tip toes. When I got the case I put it on the table next to the cylinder. I opened up the case and saw two other tubes of the milky liquid in them but I didn't really care what was in the tubes I just wanted to play with the vanish-er.

I didn't see exactly how he made it work but if he could do it then there was no way I would ever admit defeat. So I started typing random letters on the keyboard until I realized that it was probably opened by a specific word. I typed in everything from open to bippidy boppity boo. I had almost given up when I had a thought (I know crazy). I thought that the password had to be around here somewhere since I'm sure dipstick forgot it a few times.

I started looking all around. I was on my hands and knees crawling around on the floor when I saw it. There was a piece of paper taped underneath the table so I went over and grabbed it. Lo and behold it was the directions on how to work the stupid thing. Okay first step put on the mask and gloves. Nah that's to much effort, I skip to the part on how to open the door and it said to type in the word 'prepare'. Okie doke so I type prepare on the keyboard and it works. The door opens and I get excited.

That is until I hear a voice over a speaker in the ceiling say "Aria we know that you're in the building. Please come to the main lobby now and you won't get in trouble. I promise."

I knew that voice, it belonged to Mr. Coulson. I've come to far though to turn back and I have to make at least one tube disappear.

I grab one if the two tubes and place it in the machine. I follow the next step and close the door. Once that's done I read the last step and it says you just have to type the word 'finish', so I did that while watching the tube with great concentration. It vanished right before my eyes once again. My little mind couldn't comprehend how that was happening. Now I knew I shouldn't have been playing with that type of machine in the first place but, back then I was all for living in the moment and thinking about what the repercussions.

I figured I would make the last one disappear too since I was already in here.

I got to opening the machine when I heard "I swear I didn't see her while I was in there." right outside the door. It was butt-face's voice.

"Aria we're coming in okay. Stop whatever your doing before you get yourself hurt." and that would be my father.

How did they even know I was in here. I was as invisible as a panther in the dead of night. That's when I looked up and saw that there was a camera in the corner of the room. I ran over to the door and grabbed a chair that was sitting against the wall beside it. I had seen people put chairs against doors all of the time in movies. It was supposed to magically keep everyone out. It was the only thing I could think of because now, I was scared.

My parents weren't all that strict with my brothers and I but when we did something to endanger ourselves or others we would get a major scolding.

"Aria what are you doing in there?" My mother said as the door unlatched. My heart started racing, I didn't know what to do.

I ran back over to the table and started opening the chamber again. I thought that maybe if I could show them what I was doing then they wouldn't be as angry with me. I was doing good right? I mean these things were bad for people so if I could show them that I was doing a good thing they wouldn't yell at me (or kill me).

I heard the chair legs scrape against the cement floor "Ari move the chair. We need to get in there now!" The first part was Coulson trying to talk to me, and the second was for whoever else was out there with him.

"Break the door down if you have to."

O crap I was in serious trouble now I grabbed the last tube with shaky hands. It was then that I started to regret my decisions of ever following my parents here in the first place. The door burst open and shocked me,, making me drop the tube I was holding onto. The tube shattered on contact with the ground. I looked up and saw Coulson, my parents, and a couple other people dressed in black standing right outside of the door (seriously though, what was with all of the black. Do they have some kind of dress code?).

"Aria you need to back up now. Okay?" Coulson said in a strained voice while my parents just stood they looking scared.

"I can clean it up it'll be okay. Please don't be mad." I said as I knelt on the ground and when I went to pick up the broken shards they all screamed at once "No!"

My body jolted involuntarily and I felt something sharp cut into my hand.

"Ouch!" I said as I looked at my finger to see that it had been sliced open by the glass. I saw the liquid seeping into.

It was like everything happened in slow motion.

My Mother tried to rush to me to see if I was okay, when my father dragged her backwards. I thought I heard him say "No. The serum is in her now." but I wasn't sure. I looked up at them and saw them all move back at the same time.

It couldn't be that bad I could wash it out and I would be fine. I tried standing up and felt my head go woozy all of a sudden. "Mommy, I don't feel good." I said as I blacked out.

* * *

When I woke up all I saw was white. I was looking up at a white ceiling. I looked to my right side and saw white machines and white folding chairs. White walls were what surrounded me. On my left side I saw my Mother sleeping. She was in one of the comfier looking chairs.

When I tried to move I found I couldn't so I looked down at myself and saw needles in my arms and restraints securing my wrists to the bed railings. My head still felt funny, like I was dreaming. I looked up and in front of me was a glass wall, past it I saw a lab with people milling about. I tried to find someone I recognized. I saw my father among a group standing together over a microscope. He looked worn down. My fear started kicking in.

I looked over at my mother and said "Mom. Wake up. Mom!" Hearing my voice shocked her out of whatever dream she was having.

She looked over at me "Aria? O thank God." She came running over to me.

She gave me a bone crushing hug and I could feel her body shaking from the sobs she was trying to hold in. "Mom what's happening? Why are we here?" I said.

"It's okay baby. Everything will be okay I promise." Which only assured me a little bit. "I'm gonna go get daddy okay?" I just nodded still confused as to what was going on. I knew it was something big.

I tried to remember the last thing that happened before I blacked out.

I was in a room and I was playing with something I shouldn't have. My parents were there all of a sudden and I felt something stab me-. That's when it all came back.

The liquid got on my skin. I looked at my hand but couldn't find anything. Maybe it was all just a bad dream because if it wasn't I was in big trouble.

My mother came back into the room with my father in tow. He came over and gave me as big a hug as my mother had.

He said "I'm so happy you're awake."

"What's going on. What happened?" They both just looked at each other and even though I was only eight at the time I was still more mature than most of the kids my age.

"Would you two stop staring at each other and just tell me please!" I was starting to feel panic.

My parents could tell that too because the heart monitor started going crazy. My father said "Aria you have to calm down okay? We'll tell you everything but first you have to calm down. Can you do that?"

I nodded and started breathing in deep breaths.

Once I got my emotions in check I said "Okay I'm fine. Now can you please tell me what's going on?"

My father sat down on the edge of my bed and said "Do you remember what happened before you woke up?"

O no their angry with me. "I followed you guys to find out what you were hiding. I know I shouldn't have and that it was wrong but, I had to know."

"We know that and we're not angry with you sweety." My mother said.

"Really? Why not." It baffled me that they were being calm about this, I mean any other time they would have reamed me out.

"You were right in being skeptical. You knew that we weren't being entirely truthful and you wanted to have evidence to back it up." My father said. Why were they being so reasonable about this?

"So your not mad?"

"No we're not mad." Weird.

"Why am I here then. Does it have to do with that strange liquid I touched?" I said since that was the only reason I could think of as to why I would be in here.

It must have been a disease. I'm probably gonna die now. O God I can't die yet I haven't been able to get Johnny back for that stupid bucket on the door prank.

"Am I gonna die?" My parents looked sad and that made me panic even more.

"No baby, you are not going to die." Okay good.

"Then why are you looking at me like I'm about to croak at any minute." It was true they both looked as if they were ready to run out of the room at any minute. It was as if they were afraid of me.

"You aren't going to die. The reason you're here does have to do with that liquid though." I knew it.

"We're going to need you to listen very carefully, and you need to stay calm while we talk. Do you think that you can do that?"

"Yeah." I sat up a little straighter.

My father started again "So I guess by now you've figured out your mother and I are not just business people." Duh I thought but instead of saying that I nodded for him to go on. "We work for an organization called Shield. Shield was made to keep people safe."

"Like the CIA?"

"Sort of. Only no one really knows that Shield exists and instead of only protecting the world from your everyday criminals, we protect people from the extraordinary too."

"Okay. So this is like your secret spy base?"

"Actually this is a lab. One of the many that shield has." I nodded. I was starting to understand why they were always so secretive. "Your mother and I are Shield agents."

Yes! I started to get excited. "That is so awesome. So you guys are spies?"

My mother started laughing and said "Not quite. Technically we are agents but we don't usually go out into the field. Your father and I are scientists." Wha? Scientists. I guess that's sort of cool too? "We strive to make the world a better place. We do a lot of work in the field of genetics." Huh?

"Isn't genetics like what makes people who they are?" I was a pretty smart kid but when it came to science and history I was as dumb as a door nail.

"In a way. Genetics is the study of genes and heredity." My mother tried to explain. It went right over my head though. "We do work in genetics but we are basically just studying the human body." Okay I understood that a little more.

"So you guys made that stuff that I was playing with?" I didn't try and deny it because they had caught me red-handed.

"Yes we did. The liquid that was in that vile was meant to be destroyed. It was not supposed to be distributed to any human being. That vile held a serum your mother and I had been working on for years."

"So why did you guys want to destroy it if you had worked on it for so long?" That seems like a lot of effort just to be flushed down the toilet.

"It was meant to change a humans DNA. Do you know what DNA is?" I nodded because I new the basics. "So we were trying to change a persons DNA. Making them have abilities that a normal human being wouldn't usually have. We took the DNA structure of a species that was more evolved than us."

"What do you mean when you say species?" I was becoming more confused than I was when first I woke up.

"We mean another race of beings that we know little about. We don't even know where they originated from."

O God "Aliens. They're real?" Everything I know is a lie. There are aliens. Like for-real E.T.

"Yes I guess you could call them aliens." Before I could get a grasp on this new information my father dropped another bomb on me. "A few years ago one was discovered of the coast of a small island near Australia. Shield brought it in quickly so it wouldn't start a panic." I can understand that.

I mean if I discovered E.T. in my backyard I would be a little freaked out. "Sadly it didn't survive long on this planet." Well that is sad. "However, while it was alive we saw it use it's abilities. It was able to communicate telepathically, among other things." I felt like he was dodging something but didn't ask about it. I was still stuck on the aliens part.

"While we still had possession of the body we collected some of It's blood to study, and found that they're DNA was much more advanced then ours" Well obviously. "We were asked to try and combine the alien DNA with a humans. Giving a human the abilities the aliens have whilst keeping all of the traits and characteristics of what we see as normal. It took years to figure out how to combine the two without the sample disintegrating. It seemed the alien DNA was made to destroy itself if it was ever tested on. Once we had a stable sample we did multiple test on it to make sure it would be safe and compatible enough to combine it with an actual human body."

"Why would you want to combine the two in the first place?" I thought the human race was pretty cool to begin with.

"That's a really good question." My mother said. "Shield has been doing these kind of experiments for decades. Sometimes they've succeeded in what they wanted to accomplish. Other times they've failed."

This all sounded vaguely familiar. "Captain America was given a serum that made him super strong and stuff right?"

"Yes that is correct. Captain America was an affiliate of Shield." Alrighty then.

"If what you where making would have made someone like Captain America then why would you want to destroy it?" I said since Captain America seemed to be a pretty cool guy.

"because it ended up being one of the failures. When we got to the human trials phase it showed that instead of enhancing the human DNA it took over and made the person unstable and erratic."

I was finally putting all of the pieces of this story together. I was starting to understand why I was here. "O my God. I touched it. It got into a cut on my finger. Am I gonna like explode?"

My mother chuckled at that "No you are not going to explode sweetheart." Good.

"Then why am I strapped to the bed? Do you think I'm dangerous?"

"No we don't think you're dangerous. It's just, we don't know how the serum is going to react in your case."

"So it's in me? What does that mean? Do I have powers now? Am I even still human? What about-"

"Okay one question at a time. Yes, the serum is in you now and yes you are technically still human-"

"Technically!" I'm an alien. I'm a freak.

"Lucas you're scaring her. Maybe I should tell her the rest while you go tell Phil that she awake. I'm sure he'll want to say hello." My mother said with a soft smile.

My father nodded and looked embarrassed at how he had just blurted it out to me without any thought. He leaned down and gave me a kiss on the forehead "I'll be back in a little while. I promise I will fix this."

"Okay." I was terrified now.

Once my father left my mother gave me a reassuring smile and said "It'll be okay baby. You're gonna be just fine." I tried to believed her when she said it.

Of course I did she was my mom and she would never lie to me. What I didn't see was how scared she was. I thought I was going to be okay, that things would go back to normal, but things were never going to be the same after that day. I would never be normal again.


	8. Some Goodbyes Are For Now, Some Forever

**Hey so here's the new chapter. I know it's taken forever to get it up and you probably hate me for it. If your still with me, thank you. I had to rewrite this chapter because it just wasn't what I wanted it to be so tell me how you like it. **

**Thank you to MaryElisabeth and tafsi for following and AcaciaDawn105 for favoriting this story, and thank you all for reading. Please read the A/N at the bottom and please vote on the poll. When this chapter is posted it will already be up. One last thing, I would love some more reviews on whether you like this story or if you don't like it, I love hearing form all of you. I am also thinking about my next project so I would like to hear what you want to see from me.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel related whatsoever.**

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**This chapter has been edited. Hopefully this is the last one. **

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*Gasp. *Cough. *Gasp. *Cough.

That's basically what I've been doing for the last hour.

When I woke up this morning I decided I wanted to take a run. I used to run all of the time. About five minutes in though I realized this wasn't my smartest idea. God I was out of shape. I felt like I was dying on the inside.

*Cough.

It's a good thing I wasn't planning on running for my life anytime soon because I would be dead before I could reach ten steps.

When I wasn't fighting for my breath I felt relaxed, which was a nice change. My life had changed so drastically in the last few weeks that I hadn't had time to catch up. I was finally staring to get used to Bucky being around and if I'm being truthful it was actually nice to have someone else around the house, even if he didn't talk all that much. It also felt like he might be warming up to me, which I never saw coming.

I rounded the edge of the fence of the property line. Okay I can do this. I can make it.

*Cough.

My legs had never hurt this much before, not even when I broke my left leg falling from the tree in the backyard because my bothers dared me to jump from one of the higher branches, like I said before I wasn't the brightest.

When I finally reached the front door to the house I was ready to collapse. I limped inside and started working my way to the fridge when I heard voices.

I looked in the living room and saw Bucky sitting with Anna. Ugh Anna. I still haven't figured out what it is about her that just ticks me off but I was planning on it. Just after I go get some water, and maybe take a nap for about three days.

I was turning to go into the kitchen when "Hello Aria, would you like to join us?" Dammit. Of course she had to spot me.

I turned around and saw them both looking at me. I tried to get control of my breathing, I'd be damned if I ever let on to her that I was out of shape. Little miss perfect probably worked out twice a day.

"Uh, I actually just got back from a run. I need to do my cool down stretches." Yeah cool down stretches, like I had ever done them a day in my life.

"Of course, it looks like it was a strenuous run. You might want to take it easier on yourself next time. I wouldn't want you hurting yourself."

Bitch said what! If I wasn't about to keel over I would come over there and show you strenuous. I swear she said stuff like this to me on purpose. She probably knows how much it riles me up when people tell me I can't, or shouldn't, do something. I don't know what her deal is but she's been making little quips like this to me since we met.

Like last week when she said "Eating those while make your blood pressure and cholesterol sky rocket, maybe you should try some kale chips next time you crave something salty" when I was eating my potato chips. If I wanted to eat kale chips I would eat frickin kale chips.

What pisses me off the most though is she always makes sure to say these things right in front of Bucky, like she's trying to make me look lesser than her in his eyes. Why would I care what Bucky thinks, we aren't even friends.

I catch myself before I punch her in the face though, and say "You don't need to worry about me. I go on runs all of the time and I know when to stop." Bitch.

"That's good. Maybe we could partner up and go on a run together. Oh, or better yet maybe all three of us can go on a run. I think that would be good for you, to get out into the world. Do something you used to do before the accident." She says to Bucky.

Seriously? A group run. Yay.

How would this help him in any way, and what does it have to do with her being his therapist. Another thing I don't like that she does, she refers to Hydra taking him and whipping his memory an accident. It wasn't an accident, it was an abduction and a hostage situation.

Before Bucky can speak I say "I don't know if that's such a good idea. I usually run through the woods and the terrain can be rough on the calves. It might be to much to begin with." Plus I don't think I could do another hour of it, especially with her there.

"I'm sure I can manage. It's your decision though James. I do think it would be good for you. Get out of this house and get some fresh air, and I'll be there in case you have an episode." James, it was weird when I heard he first name. It just didn't sound right, but she insisted on calling him by it.

Why was she so insistent on this anyway. I was about to ask her why this was so important when Bucky says "I think it's a good idea, maybe it would be nice to get some fresh air." He says it with a smile but I can see through it.

He's uncomfortable with the idea, especially seeing as how it went the last time he was 'out in the world'. Anna looks at me triumphantly. "See we make more progress every day." She says giving Bucky that stupid fake smile she does so well.

"Alright then, You and I will go running tomorrow morning. Since it seems Aria doesn't feel up to it." She says. Shit. She's backed me into a corner. I could let her go with him alone and risk him having one of his 'episodes', which could end up with her dead, or I could suck it up and go to keep them both safe.

Great one more morning of dry heaves. "On second thought, maybe I will go." I say. I thought I saw something in Anna's eyes, maybe anger, but I couldn't be sure. I saw Bucky release a breath, like he had been holding it in.

I'm sure he's happy I'm going to be there. Just in case something does happen and he needs to be stopped. I don't know if I could completely incapacitate him but, I could keep him busy long enough for back up to arrive.

"Good I'm glad you want to contribute to James's rehabilitation." I'm sure you are, and since when have I not been contributing. I don't see him living in your home.

"Well then, I should be going. You have been progressing very well James. I will be happy to report that to Director Coulson." Okay bye.

I watched her walk out the door and started making my way to the kitchen. I was drinking my water, well more like devouring it, when Bucky walked in. "You don't have to go with us if you don't want to, you know that right?"

"What makes you think I don't want to go. I was probably going to go out tomorrow anyway." Not the truth but I needed to get closer to Anna and find out if she was an actual threat or not.

"Alright, I just got the impression that you don't like Anna very much."

Sigh "I'll admit that I'm not her biggest fan but I don't hate her or anything. I just have a bad feeling about her, do you feel it to?" Maybe he had the same thoughts I was having.

"I'm trying to put the paranoia behind me."

"That's not an answer." He sat down on a bar stool

"When the sessions started she was trying to help me remember. Most of the questions she asked were centered around Steve since he seems to be the key to getting my memories back."

"Okay, well that's not really strange seeing as how she's here to do that."

"Her questions started to change though. She started asking me about Hydra, It was subtle at first but then she started asking about you."

Uh "Me? Why would she ask you about me?"

"I don't know. She asked me if I knew about an accident you had been in."

The accident? How could she possibly know about that? The only people that knew where my parents, Coulson, and Nick Fury. Three of whom were dead now so the only way she could have found out was if Coulson had told her. He wouldn't have told her though, at least I'm pretty sure he wouldn't.

"Do you know what accident she's talking about?"

I felt myself almost telling him the truth, which was weird because I had never told anyone before. "Um, I-I have no idea what she's talking about." I said stuttering over my words.

Would it really be that bad if I told him the truth. No, I can never tell anyone. If someone found out I would be putting a huge target on my back. I could see in his eyes that he didn't believe me, he didn't let it on though.

"Maybe she's mistaken then." Why was he letting me get away with the lie?

"Yeah maybe. Why is she fishing around for information about me though?"

Even if Coulson told her about me he would have made it clear that she wasn't to tell anyone. What if he didn't tell her about me though? What if she found out on her own, or even worse what if she's working for someone else. Someone who looks for people like me?

I had heard about organizations that targeted people with abilities. Most people thought that they were just rumors, like the bogeyman, but I had always been on guard just in case. I found that most people weren't very trusting of people like me. People are always afraid of the things that can't be explained. I mean I know exactly how I developed my abilities, but some were born with it. Look at Thor for example. He's an alien God, with a power that controls lightning. When all of that first happened I was as freaked out as everyone else.

These organizations were made to take us out so that we can't band together. I had never officially met someone like me but I knew they were out there. The Avengers are an example of what it looks like when extraordinary beings come together. Can you imagine if a group similar to them came together to do evil? It would be catastrophic.

I hated having to hide who I really am. I would love to be able to use my abilities to help people, but then the world would find out and I wouldn't be able to live as a semi-normal person. So I just keep lying. I can do that.

Bucky shrugs "I don't know. Have you killed anyone recently."

Thank God I wasn't taking a drink at that moment because I would have spit it out. "What are you serious. I'm basically home all of the time and-"

"Whoa, I was joking." What?

"You were joking? Wow, so mister stoic jokes?" I say with a laugh because I've honestly never had him kid with me before.

"Yes I know how to joke around. I'm not completely robotic." It took me a second but I realize he's kidding with me again.

"Yep, only the arm." He laughs at that.

He has a nice laugh. When he laughs he looks free and I especially like it when he laughs at things I say.

O no I'm starting to get sappy feels.

"Well, I should go work on my going away present for Callie." I say because things suddenly felt awkward for me.

"Are you making something for her?"

"Um, yeah it's kinda cheesy though. I'm making a scrap book. Even though I've never made a scrap book or anything like it before in my life. I'm not really the most artsy person in the world, or even in the county."

He laughs at that again "I'm sure she'll like it anyway. If it comes from you that's all that matters right?"

"Yep." I say about to walk away.

"Hey, I was thinking about taking a look at the water heater." I turn around and look at him again

"Really?"

"Yeah, you told me that it wasn't working like it used to so.." Now he's the one that looks awkward

"Uh, sure go ahead. It's not like you can hurt anything and if there's a chance you can get some more hot water to come through I would be in heaven. Cold showers aren't really my thing."

"Alright well I'll give it a look over. I can't promise anything though It's been a while since I've done any handy work."

"Like I said It's not like you could make it any worse." "And thanks." I add on. I walk up to my room.

I grab the scrap book and sit on the bed thinking that this arrangement might not be the worst thing I could think of. Bucky's settling well, but fate has a way of turning good things bad, fast.

* * *

"So you'll call right?" Callie says to me while we're sitting in the airport.

"Of course, I'll call everyday. I need you to tell me what it's like over there. I wanna hear all about your adventures and the hot guys you'll hook-up with."

She gives me a look of disbelief "Aria Parker, what kind of girl do you take me for?" We both laugh because we know exactly what kind of girl she is.

"I'm gonna write it all down so I don't forget a single detail."

"You better."

We hear that her planes being boarded over the intercom system. Callie looks at me with tears in her eyes. "I'm gonna miss you so much girly." She says as she starts crushing me in a giant bear hug.

"I'm gonna miss you to Cal." I say returning her tight hug. Her parents come over at that moment and say their goodbyes to her.

The three of us watch as she goes through security. Once she's through she stops and turn to look at us. I can see the tears rolling down her face while she waves her hand at us. She turns back around and walk up the steps to board her plane. Once she's out of sight her parents and I start walking away.

"Hey Ari, we were going to go to Callie favorite restaurant to eat and cry about our baby leaving if you wanna join us." Callie's father says.

I laugh and say "No thanks, I gotta get home and check on my cousin."

Callie told them about "Max" so I like to use it as an excuse whenever I can to get out of things. It's not that I don't like Callie's parents, I'm just not comfortable being around them without Callie. I've never really had to do it before, she's always been around when we're all together. That thought hits me hard. Callie isn't here anymore. I mean I can call her whenever I want and I'm sure she'll pick up but, I can't go over to her house anymore when things get hard at home. Now I'm even more sad than I was before.

"Alright, and Ari?" Callie's mom grabs me by the shoulder to stop me. "You know that you can call us or come over anytime you need anything right?" She asks and I'm touched that she cares about me that much.

"I'll be okay. I appreciate It though." She gives me a "Callie" hug and says goodbye before they both walk away from me.

* * *

I pull up into my driveway after my long day of goodbyes and see another car. It's almost ten O'clock at night, who's here at this hour. As I get closer I see that it's Anna's car. Great, just what I need right now, miss judgy pants and all of her Psychiatric advice. She'll probably tell me that I need to pick up a new hobby now that Callie's gone. After the run this morning and all of her little backbiting comments I just don't have the energy to deal with her right now.

Another thought comes to me though, and it makes me feel weird, what if Bucky asked her over. I mean I did tell him that I wouldn't be home until about eleven. Maybe he does have feelings for her and asked her out, well in, for dinner or something. Am I gonna walk in on them doing something that I don't want to see. O God, now I have that image seared in my mind.

I have this feeling in my stomach, like I just ate something sour and I'm about to be sick. I can't really be jealous over Bucky's dating life can I? When did I become such a girl? I'm never jealous of other people but, with Bucky it's different. I new I felt something for him, could I actually have those types of feelings for him. Well I do feel like I wanna rip Anna's head of right now, and it's not because she's super annoying, so I guess I do.

Huh. Okay, I like him. I have romantic feelings for Bucky Barnes. Okay, I can deal. I've been lying all my life, what's one more little white lie on top of all the others. It won't be that hard.

"I can do this."

Once I'm done giving myself a pep talk I get out of my car and walk up to the front door. Bracing myself for what may be happening in there I grab my keys. Wait should I like, knock or something to warn them? Seriously? No it's my house and I'm not gonna be chased away from it because of some stupid feelings. Okay. I unlock the door, open it, and walk inside.

I get inside and it's quiet. Really quiet.

"Bucky?" I call out but no one answers. I set my keys on the table by the door and go into the living room. I turn on the light and am greeted with a mess. A big messy mess.

All of the furniture is either flipped over or just completely ruined. There are holes in the walls and as I keep walking around I see blood on the floor. A lot of blood on the floor. There was a fight here. I call out for Bucky again but still get no answer. Now I'm scared. What in the holy hell happened in here? Did Hydra find him and make a move? I garb one of my hidden knives and start moving from the living room to the kitchen.

Now that I can see the hallway it's a mess just like the living room. As I approach the kitchen opening I hear heavy breathing. I position my knife the right way and take my first step into whatever is going on.

I look to my right and take in a sight that I'm completely shocked to see. I first see Bucky kneeling On the hardwood floor with a pool of blood around him. My first thought was, is he injured.

I move toward him and say "Bucky are you alright. What happened in here?" in a low voice so I don't startle him.

It's like he doesn't even hear me though so I make my way to stand in front of him when I see something even worse than I had anticipated.

Anna. Lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Dead.

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**Oooo. Okay so a little bit of a cliff hanger but I just had to kill her off. Even though she's my character I couldn't stand her. So I promised a poll last chapter and now I'm delivering. I like the idea of polls and being able to vote on stuff you want to see so I'm hoping there will be a lot in of them throughout this story. The first on however is about introducing a new OC or a character that has already been established by marvel. In the next chapter I am going to write them in so if you can go and vote as soon as possible that would be wonderful. The poll will be going for seven days. So please vote on the next character to be introduced to this story. Thanks for reading!**


	9. Guarded

**I'm actually updating when I was set to? Crazy right? Okay so sadly no one voted on my poll so I'm postponing the new character intro until the next chapter. Luckily I already had most of this chapter written up when I posted the last one or else it might have taken longer. I am going to start working on the next chapter tomorrow so hopefully I will have that up for you guys by next Saturday. I am going to go back and try to fix my other chapters. I'm hoping that you guys are liking this story. I would love some more reviews though telling me what you think. It doesn't even have to say anything just give me a thumbs up or down and that'll let me know.**

**Okay one more thing before I thank you guys. I changed the layout of this chapter, I think it's easier to read this way, especially for mobile users. I know how much of a pain in the ass it is when you have to read through a whole paragraph to get to the speaking parts. Which is something that I am not proud to admit but I do occasionally skip through some of the 'scene layout' parts. So yeah let me know if you like it better this way and I'll make sure to keep up with it.**

**Okay so I need to give a big thank you to Splash1987 for reviewing. I was really ill with the flu when I got your review. It made me smile when I felt like utter crap. So thank you so much and I hope I updated soon enough.**

**I also want to thank Akemicchi for following my story. It means a lot when I see notices that I get followers/favorites, it just makes my day.**

**There will be an A/N at the end of this chapter so please read to the end. Thank you!**

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**Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own anything Marvel. I do own my OCs though so haha!**

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Guarded

Anna is dead. My mind is reeling. I can't even pin point how I'm feeling right now. I stand there in shock just staring at Bucky and the dead body lying in front of him. He looks detached, like he doesn't really understand whats going on, he's just staring at her. It's obvious that he's the one who killed her. He has blood all over him. Some of it is his but I don't know how much yet. I have to get him to talk to me so I can fully asses the situation.

"Bucky?"

I say in a low voice trying to get him to look up at me. He doesn't, he just keeps staring, I'm not even sure he knows I'm here yet.

"Bucky what happened?"

Still nothing. So against my better judgment I move closer to him and slowly reach out trying not to scare him.

"Come on Bucky, you gotta talk to me."

I gently touch his shoulder. I finally get a reaction but it wasn't the one I wanted.

He grabs my wrist and twist me around until I'm on my back on the ground. I have a good hold on my blade but I don't want to use it if I don't have to. He could be bleeding out for all I know, and I definitely don't want to make it any worse. So I just have to try and play nice for now.

He has my wrists pinned to the ground and is kneeling over me with murder in his eyes, yet he isn't making a move to hurt me. I stare up at him and try to talk some sense into him.

"Bucky, it's Aria you gotta pull yourself together cause I have no clue whats going on. Come on let me go, it's going to be okay."

He still has a hold on me but I can see that he's starting to come back. His grip loosens enough that I can slip my hand through.

He sits back and I sit up, I position myself between him and the body hoping that if he doesn't see it he won't go back to murderous Bucky.

"What happened?"

"I didn't want to." He says in a whisper.

"You didn't want to what? Did you kill Anna?"

I say even though I already know the answer.

He looks at me and nods.

"But I didn't want to. She wouldn't stop coming at me. I had no choice, right?"

He asks me sincerely. Wait Anna came at him? Why would she do that.

"She came at you?"

Another nod.

"She wouldn't stop. I tried to talk her down but she wouldn't stop attacking me."

I'm still completely confused.

I look behind me at Anna's body and wonder who she really was. What was she doing attacking a trained assassin? Was she sent by someone? Was she here to take me and Bucky was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? I stop asking myself questions that I have no answers to and instead ask Bucky.

"Okay you need to tell me what happened, exactly."

He nods again and starts his story.

"I was in the basement working on the water heater when I heard a knock on the door. I answered and it was Anna. She said that she needed to talk to you about something so I let her in to wait for you to get back. I asked her if she wanted some water and when I turned to get it she attacked me from behind. I fought her off and tried to get her to tell me what she was doing. All she kept saying was that she had to complete the mission."

So she was working with someone. How did Coulson let her slip by him?

"I had to stop her. I couldn't let her hurt you."

So she was here for me.

"I grabbed a knife from the block and stabbed her until she wasn't moving anymore."

God that was why there was so much blood everywhere.

"Why is all of the furniture in the living room flipped over then?"

"We fought through there. We fought everywhere, we ended up back in here."

Okay well that explains that at least.

"She said something before she stopped breathing."

He says all of a sudden, like he just remembered.

"What did she say?"

"She said that she failed. She said she got so close to getting you but she failed."

"Getting me?"

He nods.

Why was she coming after me? Who would send someone after me? It could have been one of the organizations that 'collected' people like me.

"You believe me right?"

I come out of my thoughts and looked him in the eye. I don't think he's lying and in my heart I feel that he's telling me the truth but I need to be rational. I can't let these feelings I have for him get in the way of rational thought.

He could be lying. She may have been a Hydra associate coming to debrief him. He could be a double agent just acting. He may have never broke away form Hydra.

He looks so hopeless though. I know that look, I've seen it staring back at me in the mirror many times. He's desperate for me to believe him. I want to believe him so bad. I want to throw rationality out the window and just give him a hug and tell him everything will be alright, but I can't. I'm a Shield agent first, I have to remember that.

"I need to call Coulson. I have to tell him what's going on."

I rise to my feet. Bucky grabs my arm again and I tense up ready for a fight if that's what he wants.

"Please don't do that. I promise you that I am telling the truth. If you call Director Coulson and tell him what I say happened he'll never believe that I killed her out of self-defense. He and Steve will think I'm still working for Hydra."

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

He asks not understanding.

"Are you still working for Hydra?"

He looks at me in Disbelief.

"Why would you think that. What have I done to lead you to believe that I'm still associated with them?"

He says looking at me both angrily and defensively.

"I might not know you as well as I thought. Maybe you've been playing us all from the beginning and we just wanted to see the best in you. Maybe you killed Anna because she figured it out in one of your sessions."

I say not even believing it myself.

"Out of everyone I thought that you would be the one to give me the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm sorry Bucky, I am, I want to believe that you are telling me the truth. I really do but, I have to use my head. I have to report this, I'm sorry."

I walk into the other room taking my phone out of my pocket. Bucky follows right behind me.

I dial Coulsons number.

He picks up on the second ring.

"Aria? Is everything okay? Why are you calling at this hour?"

He says confused and panicked. I am about to answer him and tell him everything that happened when I see Bucky looking at me out the corner of my eye. He looks so resigned to his fate. He feels like I'm betraying him. No on ever gives him a real chance, even Hydra whipped his memory after every mission, making him lose all of himself. All of his humanity.

I turn and look at him completely. From what Coulson explained to me when Hydra was controlling Bucky he was a shell of a person. He completed his missions and then returned back to home base. He never really had any missions that where long term. So why would Hydra send him to Coulson. There is no way they would have been able to know that he would send Bucky to me. So there would be no reason for him to be lying.

It's rational to think that maybe he did just kill Anna in self defense. It isn't that far of a jump to assume that she was working for an organization trying to build an army of people with abilities.

There was one surefire way of knowing if he was telling the truth.

It had been so long since I had tried using it though. I don't know if I would be able to fully access it. It would be extremely hard for him to fight it though. Even though he was trained by Hydra to resist torture. I'm not sure there's anyway of stopping my method.

"Ari? Answer me, is everything alright over there!"

Coulson says and Bucky looks at me confused as to why I haven't outed him yet. Instead of telling the truth I tell a lie. The first of many.

"Um yeah, I was just going to report on Bucky's progression."

Bucky is still looking at me with a confused look.

"Um is it really important or can it wait til morning?"

"O yeah I guess it can. Wow, sorry I didn't even realize what time it was. I was just at the airport saying goodbye to a friend and I lost track of the time."

"O well, that's okay just fill me in tomorrow alright?"

"Yeah sure, sorry again. Goodnight Coulson."

"Goodnight Ari."

I hang up the phone and put it back in my pocket.

"Why didn't you tell him?"

Bucky says looking at me like I just saved his life. Not just yet.

"I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here okay?"

"Okay, but you were so sure I was Hydra a couple of minutes ago. Why the sudden change?"

I'm not even sure that I know the answer to that. I refuse to acknowledge that the feelings I have for him had nothing to do with this decision.

If I was smart I would call Coulson back right now and tell him the truth because in my experience hiding the truth is one of the worst things you can do. It complicates things to much. Coulson is like family, I should be choosing him over some guy I met not three weeks ago, but here I am doing just that.

"Like I said before, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. I need to know for sure though."

"I already told you all that I can. There wasn't much that happened outside of the fighting."

I can't believe that I'm even considering using my 'gift'. How am I even gonna pitch it to him, and what if I lose control. I have to do something though, I can't just leave him hanging. I have to see the best in him.

"Look you have to go with me on this okay?"

I need to know that he's going to be game with all of this.

"Okay? What do you need me to do to make you believe?"

Here it goes.

"I need you to allow me access to your memories."

"What do you mean? How can you access my memories?"

"Remember you told me that Anna asked you about an accident I was in?"

He eyes glaze over like he's remembering killing her.

"Yes. I remember, but I still don't understand."

I'm not really good at explaining it to people.

"When I was little I was in a lab playing around with something when it spilled on me. It's hard to explain um, I went through a sort of change. I developed this ability. It allows me to access other people's memories, amongst other things."

A lot of other things but I don't say that to him.

"So you can get in my head and see what I see?"

Bucky says while taking a step back from me that I don't think he even notices, but I'm used to it. People don't know how to react when they find out about it. They usually put a lot more distance between themselves and me so I guess it's a good sign that he isn't all that scared of me, yet.

"Sort of, I don't have telepathy though, I can't like hear what your thinking or anything like that."

He still looks weary but I don't really have the time to explain it all to him.

"Alright, you're just gonna have to trust me on this okay? I know that's hard for you but I need to see what happened for myself so I can make a definitive decision."

I wait for him to ask me more questions when he surprises me.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

That went different then I expected.

"It isn't like my mind hasn't been messed with already. I don't see how you could make it any worse then it already is. So yeah, okay."

I flinch at that.

It feels kind of strange that he agreed so quickly. I would never let someone into my head, especially if it had been done to me already. Maybe he actually trusts me, it's a big leap but I can dream can't I?

"What do you need me to do?"

"Uh, lie down on the floor."

I say since the couch is trashed. Bucky lies down and looks up at me expectantly. I guess that I'm actually doing this. I ring my hands together and try to remember the steps I have to go through.

It's been so long since I have even tried to do this. I don't want to hurt him either. I just have to be extra careful, but I can do this. Wow I'm really loving these self pep talks today aren't I?

I get down on my knees and looks at Bucky.

"So I'm gonna place my hands on your head like this."

I say while placing my hands on both of his temples.

"You're gonna need to be fully relaxed for this to work though."

I say taking my hands away while sitting back. Bucky closes his eyes and starts breathing deeply. After about a minute he gives me the okay.

"Okay."

"Alright. So you'll be able to see everything that I am. I'm gonna need you to guide me through what happened. Meanwhile you need to keep relaxed or else you'll start blocking me out and I'll lose grip."

And it's bad when I lose grip because I get caught between memories and reality.

He nods and I place my hands back on his head.

"Okay here we go."

I close me eyes and focus on him. I focus on the way his energy feels and on the scene I want played out.

I'm in.

"Okay take me through it."

I say while keeping me concentration on him and his energy.

Suddenly I see my basement and I realize that was where he said he was when he heard the door.

Okay so far so good.

I hear a knock on the door through the connection. Bucky/I stand up and walk up the stairs to the door. We open it and see Anna.

"Hello James, I was actually hoping for Aria to answer. Is she home?"

She asks with that fake smile on her lips.

"She's at the airport is there anything I can help you with?"

He says politely.

"O no I just wanted to talk with her about something. Something important."

She says with an expectant look on her face.

We realize that she wants to come in so we step aside.

"Come in then. I'm sure she will be home soon."

We have a bad feeling. Well Bucky has a bad feeling, but our minds are completely melded so he and I become we.

We walk to the kitchen with Anna in tow.

"Do you want some water."

Since that's all she ever drinks when she's here.

"O yeah sure."

"So what do you need to talk to Aria about?"

We ask in a normal tone like we don't really care what the answer is so she doesn't see that we're fishing for information. If Aria's in trouble we have to know. She needs to be safe, she can't get hurt, especially because of us. So we're extra cautious when we're asked about her.

"I was going to ask her about her accident. Are you sure that you don't know anything about it?"

"No. She's never talked about an accident."

It's the truth even though we want to know.

"Well that's just to bad."

Anna says in a menacing voice that doesn't sound like her.

"Uh-"

We don't finish though, since we're tackled from behind and knock to the floor from the brunt force. We go into attack mode, like we were trained and assess the new threat. We push ourselves off of the floor and turn around to see Anna ready to pounce again with an angry look on her face.

That's when we remember that this is Anna.

"Anna what's going on. What are you doing?"

"I have to complete my mission."

She says it in a robotic tone. Like she doesn't even know what she's doing anymore.

Which is when we realize that she was sent here for a purpose. We don't have time to wonder why though because she pounces again. This time we block her and push her into the wall. We're on the defense because we don't want to hurt her if we don't have to.

"Anna who sent you? What do they want you to do with Aria?"

"I have to complete my mission."

She grabs the lamp from the table and takes a swing that we narrowly miss.

Whoever trained her, trained her well. Anna keeps walking forward which backs us up into the living room. She starts throwing things angrily.

"I have to get her!"

She says and attacks again. This time we have no choice but to grab her and throw her on the table. We have her pinned down.

"What are you doing? Don't do this. Don't make me fight you."

All she does is bring her forehead up to ours in a force we didn't know she had.

No more underestimating her.

She kicks us and we're sent flying backwards. We swing for her legs. She falls to the ground but rolls out of the way before we can connect our fist with her face. She gets up and pulls out a gun. We knock it out of her hand and while she's busy going for it we kick her in the ribs. Anna falls to the floor with a cry and reaches for the gun. We kick it out of the way and try to reason with her one more time.

"You need to stop this and tell me who sent you. I can help you!"

She ignores us and grabs the gun when we kick her in the head. She falls unconscious. We grab the gun and check her pulse to make sure that she's still breathing. When we're sure she isn't dead we carry her back to the kitchen and lay her on the table. We starts pacing racking our mind of how we missed this. We were taught to see an implant from a mile away. How could we be so careless? Especially when it comes to Aria. What does she want with Aria?

*Bang, bang.

We feel a pain in our side but ignore it and turn around. Anna is now standing with the gun in her hand. Pointed at us. She just shot us. We spring to the side and grab the first knife from the block. We have to kill her. If we don't she could kill us and then Aria would be in danger. We couldn't let that happen.

We rush her quickly and slash the knife across her stomach. She isn't phased though and comes at us again with even more force than before. She doesn't get the chance to do anymore damage though, because we start stabbing her. We don't stop until she falls to the ground.

Looking down at her a wave of guilt comes through us. What did we just do? Anna's bleeding out, we kneel next to her trying to put pressure on the wounds.

"I couldn't do it, I'm sorry I couldn't get to her. I couldn't complete the-"

She stops talking and her last breath comes out of her body.

No.

"Anna tell me why you were coming after Aria. Anna tell me!"

We say shaking her. She doesn't respond.

What did she want with Aria? That's all we can think of until we hear something. We don't think, we just react. We grab the first things we can and find that it's a wrist. We pin them to the ground and start to go into attack mode.

"Bucky, it's Aria you gotta pull yourself together cause I have no clue whats going on. Come on let me go it's okay."

Aria.

It's Aria.

We focus on her voice and loosen our grip, we sit up and look at her. At our guardian angel.

"I didn't want to."

We say trying to make her understand, she has to understand, we can't lose her too.

We tell her what happens but she doesn't believe us. We need for her to believe us.

All of a sudden I feel a sharp pang in my chest and I'm out of Bucky's head. I put my hands on the ground while taking deep breaths trying to steady myself.

"Are you alright?"

Bucky asks while placing a hand on my shoulder.

I look up at him and remember what he thought when he saw me. He thinks that I'm his guardian angel. Or at least that's what he thought at that moment. Before he can ask me if I'm okay for a second time I answer.

"Yeah it just takes a lot out of me. I haven't done that in a while."

I sit up and look at him.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you."

"It's alright. I probably wouldn't have believed myself either."

He's trying to make me feel better about myself right after I accused him of still being faithful to Hydra?

He is so strange, it's like one minute he's this cold shell and the next he's just a regular guy.

I start to stand up when I see blood on the ground next to me. I give Bucky a questioning look and that's when I remember.

"O my God Bucky, you were shot!"

I move behind him and see where the bullet went, right in his shoulder. The bad thing is there's no exit wound. I go back to standing in front of him.

"The bullet's still in there. We gotta get it out before it becomes infected."

"You know how to remove a bullet?"

What kind of question is that?

"Of course I know how to remove a bullet. It's gonna hurt though."

"I think I can manage."

Of course he can, he lost his arm for God sake, what was I thinking.

"Okay. Well let me go grab my kit and I'll be right back."

Bucky just nods his head. He's probably still reeling from killing Anna and the whole Aria has powers thing. I hear that, that can be hard to take.

I get to the kitchen and see Anna lying there. I go over to her lifeless body and feel guilt. When I saw how frantic and panicked she was when she new she had failed her mission it made me feel horrible for hating her so much. I could see the fear in her eyes. Whoever she was working for made her terrified to fail them.

The only other time that I had seen that look was on the face of Hydra agents.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't save you from them."

Whoever they are.

I go over to the cupboard and move the panel that hides my 'agent' type things. I have little contraptions like this all around the house. Like my knife holder under the table by the front door. I grab my first aid kit and go back into the living room. I find Bucky sitting there staring into space.

When he hears me he turns to look at me.

"Did you find it?"

"Yeah. Right where I left it."

I sit behind him on my knees as he takes his shirt off. The bullet tore into his right shoulder blade. It isn't bleeding to bad, so I take that as a good sign. Even though I know how to remove a bullet doesn't mean I've actually done it before.

I take some pliers out of the kit.

"Um, is there anything you need before I star digging into your back?"

He laughs.

"No. I'm okay."

"Okay then."

I grab a flashlight and hold it in one hand while I hold the pliers in the other. I can see the bullet so I start to go in with the pliers. Bucky doesn't make any noise which doesn't exactly make me feel better because even though he's being silent I can see his back muscles tense up.

I take the bullet out as fast as possible. Once I get it out I grab the thread and get ready to stitch up the wound.

"You okay?"

"I'm guessing you've never done this before."

"Why makes you say that?"

"Because you keep making sure that you haven't done anything to hurt me."

I give a little laugh.

"Well just because I know how to do something doesn't mean I've actually done it."

"It's good that you've never had to do this before."

I don't completely understand why that's a good thing but I don't ask. Instead I carry on with the task at hand.

I disinfect the wound and stitch it up. Which isn't as hard as I thought it would be. It may be because Bucky isn't a complainer though.

"Okay. Done."

I say as I start putting things back into the box. I'm finishing up when I felt a cool hand on my arm. I look up and see him looking me straight in the eyes, giving me a close up of the beautiful blue that are his.

"Thank you."

I almost didn't hear him through my trance.

"Of course."

"Not just for stitching me up. Thank you for believing in me."

"Well when you see it with your own eyes it's kind of hard to refute."

"You could have told Director Coulson but you didn't."

"Yeah but-"

"Would you just accept my thanks."

He says with an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, okay, I accept your gratitude."

He smiles and it's the first time I've actually seen him really smile. It fits him. It's like he was meant to be smiling all of the time. The smile fades though when he sees me staring at him, probably with a stupid awe-some look on my face.

I think he's about to pull away when the air changes. I'm not in a room surrounded by trashed furniture anymore. I'm only aware of him and the way he's looking at me. His gaze flickers between my eyes and my lips.

I don't know who starts to lean in first but before I know it we're only inches from each other. I hold my breath, waiting.

Right when he starts to close the gap, my mind goes on the fritz.

"We should probably take care of the dead body in my kitchen."

Wow what a way to ruin the mood Aria.

Why O Why did those words just come out of my mouth. The tension immediately breaks and Bucky leans away from me. He gets up off of the floor.

"I'll take care of it."

Is all he says before he leaves the living room and me sitting on the floor alone. Without even giving me a second glance.

Why? Why would I say that when we were so close? It isn't like I haven't been kissed before. I've never been kissed by someone like him before though.

All I want is to throw caution to the wind. I want to go after him and kiss him passionately.

I can't.

He knows who I am now. I can't let myself get that close to him. I can't let my guard down that easily. It would be different if he was just a regular guy that I met at college. I wouldn't have to worry about trust because there would be no reason for me to tell him about my life as a spy.

Sadly my life has never worked that way. I always have to want what I can't have, and Bucky is definitely one of those things.

Even though I kind of hate myself for ruining that moment I'm still glad I didn't let it get that far. It would have just confused things even further. I hope that we can go back to the way things were before, he was just staring to open up to me.

The way Bucky stormed out of the room makes me feel like it will take a while to get over this and it kills me to think that the little bit of trust that had built up between us had crumbled that quickly.

We're both adults though so it shouldn't be to hard to get past this, right?

Yeah, like I said, my life doesn't work that way.

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**A/N: Okay so I'm hoping to start a new story soon since I have a feeling of where this one is going. I already have about 10 concepts for a bunch of different shows/movies. I'm gonna try something new which is, at the end of every new chapter I post there is going to be a summary of one or two stories that I think would be cool to write. So keep that in mind when finishing and please review to tell me what you think or what you want to see from me next.**


	10. You're not a monster

**New chapter. Wooo Whooooo! On time too. I edited all of my earlier chapters this week, so I hope it makes for a better read. This chapters has been one of my favorites to write, because now we're staring to see who the real Aria Parker is. Onto other things, if you want to check out Aria or Callie's 'styles' you can go on my profile page and there's a link to my polyvore account, if you wanna check that out. Also I am going to try and start drafting up some chapters for other stories I want to try out (check the A/N at the bottom for a summary of a new story I'm working on). I love choosing the names for my characters but I would love to here some of your ideas, so if you have any ideas for an awesome character name let me know, I need some new ones for this story too. Please review, I really want to know how you feel about this story. Lastly this is the first 'romantic' scene I've ever written, and since I'm not all that great with mushy I hope it comes off well.**

**Please read the beginning of the A/N at the bottom (even if you don't care about a new story) because it entails things coming in the next chapter.**

**Favorites/follows: BrokenAngel22 and Edward Cullen's Girl thank you for following (Applauds). Deathbat666 (sweet name), thank you for following and favoriting (Silently cries happy tears).**

**Once again, please review and have a wonderful day.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or anything that relates to Marvel in this story, only my OCs. **

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"_So how is he?"_

"Good I guess, all things considered." I say to Coulson over the phone.

It's the morning after the 'incident'.

As promised, Bucky got rid of the body. Where? I don't know. He told me that it was probably better if I didn't. If anyone ever found out it would make me seem more believable when I denied knowing about it.

That was all that he had said to me since the almost moment between us last night. Just a few words and then he went straight to his room. While he was gone I cleaned up all of the blood off of the floors and furniture. Trying not to leave a trace of what happened, which is a very hard feet to accomplish by the way.

I was still kind of reeling from walking in on that scene, but I had told Coulson that I would call him this morning so, to not seem suspicious, I had to. I have to try and act normal, like nothing out of the usual happened. I would have to lie to Coulson, one of the only people that I trusted in this world.

"_All things considered?" _Coulson asked, not fully understanding.

"Well you know what I mean. Considering that the guy was used as a weapon for Hydra, I would say that he's come a long way in a short amount of time." The lie rolled right off of my tough, it was a little scary.

"_Of course. So there hasn't been any trouble?" _

O God had he heard something somehow? What if he already knew about Anna and was just testing me to see if I was a loyal agent? Great now I'm just being paranoid.

For a second I think about coming clean and telling Coulson everything that happened, but then I think of Bucky. What would happen to him if they knew? Would they lock him up like I was so afraid that they would do to me? I couldn't let him go through that, he had already gone through enough.

"Nope no trouble whatsoever."

"_Good, Good. How about Anna?" _

"Um Anna? What about her?" He knows. He has to know if he's asking about her.

"_How are her and Barnes therapy sessions going?" _

Okay so maybe he doesn't know. Maybe I am just being to paranoid.

"I guess they're going okay. I don't really talk to him about that stuff to much. I don't want to pry into his privacy, you know." I say while fidgeting with my sweater. Which he luckily can't see.

"_O, I thought that you two had grown a sort of bond or friendship for one another, or at least that's what agent Barnes would have me believe."_

So Coulson had been talking to Bucky? I knew that there had to be conversations, for debriefing and such, but I never knew that they actually talked to one another. And apparently they talk about me in these conversations. Bucky said that we're friends? That he has a bond with me?

"_Ari? You still there?"_

I shake myself out of my thoughts and say "Yeah I'm still here, sorry. I didn't know that you and Bucky talked like that."

"_Well he does need people in his life that he can talk to. I wouldn't say that we're friends, but I'm happy to be the bridge between him and Cap." _That does make sense, and the way Coulson talks about Cap, makes him seem like a pretty decent person. I hope I can get to meet him one day and tell him how much of an impact he's had on so many of us, especially Coulson. He is a major Captain America fanboy after all.

"It's good that he has you to talk to. Even if you aren't friends, it still shows that he can have those types of relationships." I say right before the man himself walks into the room.

I look over at him as he grabs a protein bar and a glass of water. He doesn't even look up at me though.

"Hey Coulson, I gotta go." I say quickly, hoping to get off of the phone and talk to Bucky before he disappears again.

"_Me too. We've been recruiting new agents, it's a very tedious task." _I'm sure it is, seeing as how nobody wants to get close to Shield since the whole Hydra fiasco.

"Well I wish you luck, and if you ever need any help in convincing people to join I'm only a phone call away."

"_I appreciate that, but I think I've already put you through enough."_ I feel even worse for lying to him now. He feels so bad for putting all of this on me and I'm over here being a traitor.

"You haven't put me through anything, I volunteered remember? You tried to talk me out of it." I see Bucky start to throw his trash away, damn he eats fast, and realize that this is the last chance I'm gonna get.

"I'll call you if anything progresses okay?" I say while walking over to the doorway, trying to block Bucky from leaving.

"_Sure. And Ari?"_

"Yeah." I'm now between him and the doorway leading out of the kitchen.

"_Have you ever heard of a group called Orion?" _Um.

"No I can't say that I have. Why?" I hope it isn't a branch of Hydra or something. That's all that we needed right now.

"_It's probably nothing, we've just been getting reports saying that they may be going after powered people. I don't think it's a real threat but I want you to be extra careful when going out. At least until I can find out whether they're an actual threat or not. Okay?"_

I barely heard what he said because I'm so focused on getting Bucky to stay where he is. I'm pretty sure it was something about being extra careful so I say "I will. You don't have to worry about me on top of everything else you have going on."

"_I know, you're one of the most responsible people I know of. Just remember what I said and keep your guard up Ari. I'll talk to you later." _Ouch. Him telling me that I'm one of the most responsible people that he knows, stings.

"I will, bye Coulson."

"_Goodbye Ari."_

I hang up the phone and sit it on the counter.

When my back is to him, Bucky tries to get past me. I step in front of him and put mt hand on his chest to stop him. "Whoa, where are going?"

"Up to my room." He tries to move past me.

I grab both of his arms in my hands and say "Sit." I move us over to the bar stools and we both take a seat on them. Which is a relief because I don't know what else I could've done to get him to stay.

I tried cornering him in the hallway this morning but I heard a noise behind me, I looked to see what it was, and when I turned back around he was gone. So now I'm keeping all of my attention on him.

"We need to talk about last night."

"What about it?" He says moving back from me.

Seriously? Okay "Well maybe for starers, what are we going to tell people when they ask about Anna and why she hasn't been in contact, because you know it's going to happen at some point."

"We tell them that she hasn't been in contact with us either. Keep it simple, don't give them a reason to be suspicious, and they won't be"

Okay well that's all good in theory but "What about the people she was working for? I'm sure she won't be the last to come after us, or me, I don't even know." I was still confused with all of that. It had seemed like she was here for me, but I still haven't figured out how she could've known about what I can do.

I'm sure he can tell that I'm not used to this. I've never been put into a situation like this before. I've only been out in the field a couple of times, and even then I never dealt with anything of this magnitude. If Shield had a new enemy then I had to figure out a way to warn Coulson.

I just had to do it without him figuring out about Bucky killing Anna.

I noticed that he didn't say anything so I say "What? Do you know something that I don't?"

He get up out of his seat and starts pacing. This isn't going how I thought it would. I thought that he would have some kind of plan. Some way of dealing with this, but it's obvious that he's as lost as I am.

"Maybe we should tell the director."

"No!" I yell it, not meaning to.

Bucky turns and looks at me, shocked by my reaction. Why he's shocked though, I don't know. Yes if we come clean to Coulson it would probably lessen the backfire that this will have on the both of us, because I know for a fact that he's going to find out at some point. Telling him now though would be futile.

"I just mean… We've already lied to him, we might as well make it count right?"

"You shouldn't have had to lie for me in the first place."

"Really? We're going back to that again? I'm in on this too, I covered for you, and haven't you figured out by now that you aren't just a mission?" It comes out of my mouth before I can filter it.

His expression is priceless. He's stopped moving completely. I get up off of the stool to stand in front of him. "I mean we're more than just handler and asset right?" I look up at him to find his blue eyes looking into mine. All I want to do is close what little space there is between us, but I can't.

"I thought that we had become more like friends these past couple of weeks." And those words stop the moment. He takes a step back.

"Friends? I'm not all that great at having friends. You saw what I tried to do to the last friend I had."

It's a good thing you met me then, because once I decide I like you, I keep you.

"But you weren't you then. You were a Hydra soldier. You're just Bucky now." He gives me one of his rare smiles, which I return.

"I like that, just Bucky."

The way that we're talking makes me believe that we can get past all of this. Maybe we can just be friends.

No. I promised myself a long time ago that I was done with Shield, you see how that worked out. This was it though, after this, I was done. I had to be done, I have so much other stuff that I have to focus my attention on.

I can't keep being focused on Bucky. It would be so easy for me to get back into the swing of things. It would be so easy to make this mission last longer than it had to. The thing is, if I did that, if I said that I wanted back in, everyone would have to know about my abilities. I hated it.

I hate having to keep from doing the things I want to, just because I'm some mutant freak. I hate that I have to keep in control 24/7, because if I slip for one moment I could hurt someone, and I would never be the one who hurt Bucky. He didn't deserve that.

"Well hopefully we can make it permanent, get your memories back. Even if you never remember who you used to be, you are still you, there's no changing that."

He wouldn't stop smiling at me and it was making me feel things, things that I couldn't feel.

"And than you can become a real Shield agent, and I can go back to being Aria Parker, average girl." I say it quickly, ripping the band-aid off. I need to make it clear that even though we are friends, this mission will end. He will go back to head-quarters, and become the agent he was always meant to be.

The look of hurt and disappointment flash so quickly in his eyes that I almost don't catch it. It kills me to know that I'm the one doing that to him. Sometimes I wish I couldn't spot things like that.

"Of course. You deserve that after what I've put you through."

"You haven't done anything to me. I'm lucky you were here when Anna came for me, I don't know if I could've fought her off like you did." I say it knowing that I could have easily, if I had used my abilities.

"I'm sure you could have. Your stronger than you know." I needed to change the subject before I got sucked back into his beautiful stare.

I walk over to the sink and start cleaning the dishes that were left in there. All of which are mine since Bucky cleans his immediately after he uses them. At least I know he was raised with good manners.

"Um so do you have any questions for me?" I actually find myself wanting him to ask. It would be nice to talk to someone about it, since I've kept it bottled up for so long.

"Questions?" He doesn't even know what I'm talking about. Figures, the one person that I find myself wanting to talk to about it is the one person who knows how to mind his own business.

"About my abilities."

He comes over and starts drying as I wash. "Not really, unless you want to tell me."

I remember when I was in his head, he did want to know, he just didn't want to push me. God couldn't he be a little less perfect.

"Well if you want to know, I'm willing to tell you. I mean, you are apart of this now, so you should be filled in."

We stand in silence for a minute, just washing dishes. As we stand there I think about how normal this is. I feel like we're just an average couple doing regular things. Then I look over at Bucky and see his metal arm holding a plate and am reminded, once again, that he's anything but normal.

Once we're done Bucky moves over to sit back down on one of the bar stools as I pour us some fresh lemonade I squoze earlier this morning. I hand him his before I go back to standing in front of him. I want to be able to see his reaction to the things I'm about to say.

He just waits patiently for me to say something. I start picking at my sweater's sleeve as I try to think of where I'm going to start.

I've only ever had to do this once before, with the director at that time, Nick Fury. To say it was scary is an understatement. The way he looked down at you with his one eye, yet somehow making you feel even more intimidated.

I was ten at the time. That's how long it took for me to get control of it. The two years in between I was kept under surveillance 24/7. It might seem drastic to worry so much about an eight year old, but then again I wasn't just an eight year old, I was dangerous. I still am.

I guess I'll just have to start at the beginning.

"I don't know how much detail I'll be able to get into, some of it is classified. So just remember that before you ask any questions."

"You can tell me whatever you want to. I won't push you to tell me anything." Of course you won't.

"Okay well first off, both of my parents were Shield scientists. They mostly worked in the genetics department. They were trying to create something that would make the average person stronger, faster, more intelligent. Kind of like the Super Soldier Serum that made Steve Rogers, Captain America."

I see a sad expression cross his face at the mention of Steve, and I know I have his full attention.

"They were trying to make another Super Soldier?" He asks, not fully understanding what I meant to say. Maybe I'm not explaining it correctly.

"No, well sort of, they were trying to make humans more enhanced. I guess that's a better way of describing it. No one has been able to recreate Doctor Erskine's formula for the serum. We all saw how that went for Doctor Banner."

We both grimace at that. I remember when I saw the Hulk for the first time. His destructive nature reminded me of myself. It gave me nightmares for weeks.

"No, my parents used different methods. Instead of creating a formula out of nothing, they used other species DNA codes to try and enhance humans innate traits and characteristics."

Whenever my parents would try to tell me about the other experiments they were involved in, I would try and tune them out as much as possible. Even though I loved my parents, I didn't exactly approve of their methods. They would usually experiment on the already deceased, but sometimes they needed a live specimen. I don't like to think about that.

"Different species?" Bucky asks me, bringing me out of my fog of nightmares.

"Aliens."

"Aliens." He says trying to figure out what exactly I'm getting at. Everyone knows about aliens by now, but no one knows how long the government has kept them a secret. Lets just say that Area 51 isn't exactly a myth.

"Yes aliens, or extraterrestrials. Whatever you want to call other beings which do not live on earth. My parents were apart of a team of scientists who specialized in alien DNA. Shield employed them to figure out how they could transmit their abilities into us."

An expression of disbelief crosses his face "So your own parents put alien DNA into you?"

What! "No! My parents would have never done something like that to me, not on purpose. They actually tried to keep Shield a secret from me, but as you have probably figured out by now, I don't like when people keep secrets from me. Think of how I am now, and times it by ten. That's how I was at the age of eight, which is when it happened. When my life turned to shit."

I say without even thinking. I don't usually like taking pity on myself, I feel like that's ridiculous. Enough people already feel pity for me, I don't need to be constantly throwing myself a party. Plus a lot of agents have been through much worse.

Especially Bucky "I didn't really mean that. My life has been a lot better than most of the other agents."

He must not want me to feel pity for him either because he looks away from me when I say that. I continue like I don't notice.

"Anyway, like I said, I've never liked when people lie to me. I knew my parents were and I decided instead of asking them about it, that I would follow them to work. I figured they would say something to incriminate themselves. I never thought that they worked for a spy agency." We both laugh at that.

"Back then Shield wasn't as crazy about securing their hidden bases. I followed them right into one, of course I had no idea what it was at that age. I knew it was something fishy though. That's how I found out that they were scientists, and not just your run of the mill business people."

I decide not to tell him the story step-by-step'

"Skipping ahead to when I messed up and put alien DNA into myself."

I can only imagine how that sounds.

"I was playing around with something that I shouldn't have been, I wasn't the brightest." He laughs at that again and I almost lose my track of thought.

"I broke a vial, with the formula in it. A vial, that was supposed to be disintegrated by the way. I accidentally cut my hand open when I was picking up the shards of glass, and that's when it happened. I blacked out right after, but I can still see my parents faces when they saw the cut."

I get lost in my thoughts for a moment. I'm brought back when I feel something warm on my hand. I look down and see that it's Bucky trying to comfort me. I smile at him and continue.

"When I woke up, my parents explained to me what was in the vial. Which like I said before, was a formula that was made up of both alien and human DNA components. The alien that the DNA belonged to apparently crashed onto Earth and died quickly after. When it was still alive though, they observed that it had telepathic abilities. Which is why I can see memories."

He nods at me to keep going. People usually try to get as far away from me as they can when I get to this part, but as I said before, Bucky isn't a regular person. He's better, and stronger than that.

"It took me a long time to get control of my new abilities though. Being that young, and then being thrust into this whole new world, I was confused and scared." I sit in front of him. Thinking this is going to be awhile, so I may as well get comfortable.

"Everyone was scared of me too, because along with being able to see peoples memories, I can do other things. Scarier things."

I always hated this part. I watch his reaction closely, already knowing what it would be.

"I can also change peoples memories, sometimes I can do it without them knowing that I was there. I can also create scenes around people. I can make them see things that aren't there." There it is. The secret I've kept inside for so long.

Bucky's face doesn't change from it's comforting expression though, I'm confused.

"This is the point where you should be backing away in terror." He does the last thing I expected him to.

He laughs.

"Why would I be afraid of you? You told me that you have it under control now. It may also help that I've already had my memories erased, so there really isn't anything that you can do to me that hasn't been done before."

I can't believe that I've found the one person in the world who has already been messed with so much that he doesn't even care that I can get into his head. This has never happened to me before, even my parents were afraid of me. It took a long time for them to accept that I was still their daughter.

It was one of the hardest parts about being that age and having to deal with things I could barely comprehend. Whenever they looked at me they had a mask of happiness. I could always see through it though. I never understood why they couldn't just love me, why they couldn't comfort me when I needed them the most.

Now I understand why they couldn't handle me with kiddy gloves.

Especially with the things that I did.

"You don't know the things I did before I had control of them though. I've done terrible things, horrible things." I can feel the emotions coming to the surface, my eyes start to water up.

I turn my head hoping that he can't see the tears escaping. I take my hand from his and quickly wipe them away. I've kept this locked up inside of me for so long that I don't know how to handle the feelings of guilt and hate that come with them.

My back is to Bucky as I try to stop crying. I don't cry, I can't remember the last time I did cry.

I hear him getting up out of his seat and figure that he's just going to leave me alone for a couple of minutes. Allow me to get myself together, since we both know that this isn't how spy's are supposed to act.

That's why I'm completely shocked when I feel his hand on my shoulder turning around to face him.

I oblige, but I don't look up at him, I can't. I'm to afraid of what I'll see. He puts his fingers under my chin and brings my face up, making me look him in the eyes. When our eyes meet I see something that I've never seen before, not after I just spilled my secret.

He isn't judging me, or afraid of me. His eyes look at me, trying to get me to understand something.

"Whatever you've done is in the past. If I can be forgiven for the things that I have done, then you have nothing to explain. If you care this deeply and have this kind of reaction to the things you've done, that means you feel guilt. Monsters don't feel guilt. You, Aria Parker, are definitely not a monster. That, if nothing else, I know to undoubtedly be true."

How he knows to say those things to me, I have no idea, but it was exactly what I needed to hear to let it out. It was like the flood gates opened up inside of me.

I didn't even realize that I had done it but one second I was looking up at him and the next I was wrapped in his arms, sobbing. I was finally letting myself feel what I needed to, what no one else would allow me to feel. Bucky just held me through it all.

It must have been a good ten minutes when I finally got control of myself again. The sobs were staring to stop and I wasn't shedding tears anymore. I stayed in his arms for one last minute, knowing I would have to be the one to back away.

I breathed him in one last time, and started to back away.

His hands came up to my face, wiping the remaining tears away "Are you alright?" he says brushing my hair away from my face.

"Yeah, I think I will be now." I say grabbing his hand with the intention of removing it from my face, but instead I lace my fingers with his and say "Thank you."

He smiles one of his disarming smiles and I stop breathing for a second. He must notice my reaction because his pupils widen and his eyes look down to focus one my parted lips. In the back of my mind I know that this seems familiar to me, and that I should break the moment, but all I can do id focus on him.

The way that he's moving closer to me, pulling me gently to him. I start to lean into him. We're so close now that I can feel his breath on my lips.

I feel his lips gently brush across mine, testing, and then

*Ding Dong

The door bell rings. Abruptly ending whatever moment we were just in.

I jump away from Bucky like he's one fire, which doesn't go unnoticed by him. I see the hurt flash in his eyes and hate myself once again for being the one to put it there. This is just like last night all over again. Why do I keep doing that. Bucky is the last person that I want to hurt.

I'm so wrapped up in Bucky and how I'm going to explain myself, that I completely forget why I jumped away from him in the first place.

*Ding Dong.

*Ding Dong.

O right the door bell. I want to say something to Bucky before I leave. I need to let him know that I never meant to lead him on. That I never meant to hurt his feelings, but the ringing is becoming more and more incessant.

I groan and stomp my way over to the door, leaving Bucky behind me, confused. I throw the door open and say "What the hell do you want!"

I know, real mature.

Before I can focus on who it is I hear "Sorry if we interrupted something, but we really need some help Ari." I know that voice.

I finally focus and see that it's Coulson standing on my doorstep, and he's not alone either. I look beyond him and see other Shield agents, dressed in uniform, and a Helicarrier.

Wonderful. Could my life get any more complicated?

Dammit I probably just jinxed myself.

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**A/N: So obviously the next chapter will be an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D crossover. It will only be for one chapter though, unless you want it to be ongoing throughout the story. Let me know.**

**The first new story I'm going to work on is a Once Upon a Time fic. So keep reading if you're interested.**

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**Summary: A new girl come to town, with someone from Regina's past. The girl doesn't even know why she was brought there in the first place. She has no clue why everyone keeps referencing storybook characters. Do these crazy people really think that she's one of them. She was told that she would get answers about her biological parents. Does she even care though? Will she make it out alive? You'll have to read to find out.**

**About The Story: OC is female, 17, with a bit of an attitude, especially towards authority figures. Pairings haven't been completely figured out yet. Set around the time of Neverland arc. Let me know if you have any suggestions on names.**


	11. Agent Parker

**Alrighty, new chapter. YAY! Okay so I know you're probably wondering when the romance is going to come. It's going to take a tiny bit longer for it to be full fledged togetherness. There will be moments where they throw caution to the wind, so I hope that can be good enough for now. So we are coming up on the enemy head of this story. I hope you like my bad guys, and I hope I wrote the Agents of Shield characters right. As always, please review. I really need to hear from you guys, let me know what you want to see more of.**

**Clintasha101, Marvel18, sleepyPrincess, and Tigerlilli123 thank you guys for following (High five). Thank you dolphingirlrrg for both following and favoriting my story (Double five). You guys are awesome.**

**Please Review after reading! Thanks.**

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**Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except my OCs. So boo hoo.**

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**Chapter 11:**** Agent Parker**

"What happened?"

"We were ambushed." Coulson says pressing the washcloth I just handed him to the gash on his forehead.

My house is currently being invaded by Shield agents. Right after I opened the door to see an injured Coulson I immediately went into action.

I led everyone to the living room and told Bucky to get the medical kit from where I keep it hidden in the linen closet upstairs. While I grabbed the one from the kitchen. One of the female agents, Skye, is currently on her laptop trying to locate something or someone. Everyone else is either sitting or standing with defeated looks on their faces.

After handing Coulson the cloth I go over to sit in front of the agents I don't know and reach for his arm, which seems to be beat up pretty bad.

"May I?" I look into his soft blue eyes, as an agent you're trained to notice everything about a person. The moment you look at them you need to know if they're going to be an asset or a problem.

My first assessment of him was sadness, just plain sadness. I noticed how everyone seems to walk on eggshells around him. I can tell that something must have happened to him recently that made him this way, and looking into his eyes I can see that behind the sadness is friendliness and kindness. You can't just wash that away. I just hope he can get passed whatever it was, because this agency already has to many cold and reserved agents working for them.

He nods, giving me an answer to my previous question, and I roll up his sleeve to see he has a pretty significant cut on the outer side of his arm.

"I'm gonna have to clean that up before it becomes infected." I say as I start rifling through my kit for antiseptic and bandaging.

"Thank you." He says while smiling down at me, it doesn't reach his eyes though.

"Of course, what's your name?" I figure I can strike up a conversation with him, since everybody else is either in their own world or worried about what Skye's doing.

"Fitz, Leo Fitz." I take the cap off of the antiseptic wash and wet the cloth with it.

"Well Fitz, this is gonna sting like a bitch. Sorry ahead of time." I gently press the cloth on and around the cut, cleaning the debris out of it. He barely even flinches, which somewhat surprises me. He didn't seem like a field agent, or someone who can take a lot of pain, but I've been wrong about people before.

"Well Fitz, I'm Aria Parker. Nice to meet you. I mean the circumstances aren't the greatest but" I reach my hand out to him and he shakes it, giving a small laugh.

"You too, Aria."

"So what do you do for Shield?"

"I'm a technological specialist." When he sees my lost expression he says "I fix things."

"O, cool." I drift off and concentrate on what I'm doing.

After I'm finished wrapping Fitz's arm I go over to stand by Coulson. I notice Bucky standing still as a statue in the corner, as far away from the other agents in the room as possible. It's obvious how uncomfortable he is with this situation, seeing as how he was fighting for the other side not so long ago.

I also notice how the older agents are looking at him, sensing to see if he's a threat, and even though they know he isn't they still aren't going to let their guard down. I can understand, I was the same way not four weeks ago.

I look around and see agents of legend. You have Coulson, who's been an agent of Shield even before I was born. Over his right shoulder stands Melinda May or the 'Calvary'. Next to Coulson sits Bobbi Morse/the Mockingbird. They're the kind of agents that have stories that will live on forever.

Sitting across from them are three agents I have never encountered before.

Skye who seems to be a pretty bad ass hacker. Simmons, whom I know nothing about but would guess she's in the technological or medical science department like Fitz. Someone named Hunter who I've only ever heard about briefly while learning about Morse. Apparently they were married at some point, even if I hadn't heard they were married I would be able to tell something had happened between the two, with the way they look at each other.

Sitting in a chair beside Fitz is Agent Mackenzie, I worked under him for one of my only field missions. He's normally a lax guy but right now he seems tensed up, like he doesn't trust anyone in this room.

Then there's Trip sitting in the chair beside me. Trip and I have known each other for a while now. We were in the Academy near the same time, which is when we became friends. I've always known him to be a joker, yet even he seems to be defeated.

After my assessment I can tell that this team has been through some kind of hell. They're broken and un-trusting of one another, which can be one of the most dangerous places you can be. I've seen situations like this turn on a dime. One second you're just un-trusting of one another, the next someone's dead. It could be by accident or on purpose, doesn't matter, it always happens.

Since no one else seems to want to start the conversation I guess it'll have to be me. "Do you know who ambushed you?"

Coulson shakes himself out of whatever haze he was in, while everyone else turns their attention on me for probably the first time since they walked into my home.

"It was Orion."

Okay who in the hell is Orion, and why did he go after Coulsons team alone? Why not try to find and attack a shield base, one of the few we have left that is. "Who's Orion?"

Coulson looks at my like I'm being stupid, only the way he does it is a lot nicer than when someone else does.

"Don't you remember me telling you about it this morning?" O yeah, I was kinda busy when we talked, so

"No not really. It's not that I ignored you or anything, I was just preoccupied with something else." God this morning seemed like so long ago, is it even the same day? I look over at the clock on the wall and see that it's almost one in the morning. So, nope.

"Preoccupied huh?" I look up and over in the direction of the new voice.

It's the Hunter guy and by the way he's moving his eyebrows, like he's having a face seizure, and looking between Bucky and myself, I can see that he's trying to insinuate something. Something that's pissing me off.

"What's that supposed to mean exactly?" I say in a snarky tone. Letting this new guy know how serious I take my assignments.

"C'mon we're all friends here. I think Coulson would understand if you were preoccupied." He says in a joking way. Deep down I know he's just messing around. He's probably like this all of the time but I'm still on edge from last night and accusing me is the last thing anyone should be doing, even if something did happen between us.

"I hope you're not trying to say what I think you are because then I would have to take offense, and that wouldn't be nice for anyone." I say with my teeth clenched and a dangerous mask on my face.

He seems to realize he's made a mistake joking with me like that, so he says "Whoa, I didn't mean anything I was just messin' around."

Another new voice chimes in "Well maybe you wanna stop messing around right now Hunter. I don't think it's an appropriate time." I look over and see it's Bobbi.

She swings me an apologetic look like she's had to deal with this for a while, she understands why it might've ticked me off. I give her a smile as to say thanks. I look back over at Hunter and say "Sorry, I just take my assignments seriously."

He looks surprised. I, unlike many other agents, have no problem telling people I'm sorry, or admitting my own faults.

"Yeah, no worries."

I look behind me at Bucky to see if he's relaxed any, I see that he's still standing stick straight. Only now he's giving Hunter a cold look. I try to change the mood a little.

"So who is this Orion?"

"Orion isn't one person, they're a group. Like I told you this morning, we didn't know a lot about them. We were still trying to collect information. They must have found out what we were doing though, because not to long after I talked to you, they attacked." So either Shield has a mole, or they hacked the systems somehow. I don't know how the latter would be possible though, seeing as how Shield is really serious abut their cyber security.

"How did they attack, and how do you know it was that group specifically?"

"Trust me they made themselves known." The comment comes from agent May.

I look over at her with a question "How?"

Coulson nods at her to continue "Right before they attacked, they sent a virus overriding our computer systems. They sent a message through telling us that it was time to pay the price."

"Pay the price? Pay the price for what?"

That's when Coulson decides to take over "We still aren't completely sure. What we do know is that Orion has something to do with powered people."

I take in a sharp breath of air. Things just got real for me. I can tell that Coulson saw my reaction, he gives me a reassuring smile. I can tell that we're going to talk about this alone, just not right now.

"The ones who attacked us were all powered. I don't even understand how they had a group that size." It comes from Simmons who, up until right now, had been silent.

This isn't good. I have a bad feeling about this. Powered people in groups, that aren't monitored, are dangerous. Some people with abilities are innately good hearted people, but then they're the ones with a major chip on their shoulders. Example one: Loki.

He had daddy issues and decided to take it out on the entire human race.

It's scary what one person who is motivated enough can do.

"When people have something in common and want to achieve a common goal, they can do anything. That's why we're here, to stop them." Bobbi says trying to make Simmons come out from her own thoughts.

I've never really put much thought into it, but I guess it would be terrifying to have someone with abilities come barreling towards you. Even if they only raised their hand it could be catastrophic. Especially if you've never handled a situation like that before. Which I'm guessing Simmons hasn't. Well actually I'm pretty sure a lot of the people in this room haven't had to deal with something like that before. Especially an attack of the magnitude, with powered individuals.

Trying to wrap up the story time, and stop everyone from being so damn glum, Coulson takes over "When they overrode our systems they opened the door to the Helicarrier. Once they got one the ship they started reeking havoc. They weren't even after any of the files or secrets compartments. All they wanted was to hurt people. It's like they were trying to send a message, what that message was supposed to be? I don't know. We were able to spot their leader though. He seemed to be helping the ones who might have been a little hesitant along. It was like he was controlling them telepathically.

That sounded weirdly close to what I do. I can't control what people do, but I can control specific aspects of someones mind.

"Why would they want to kill though? What does that accomplish? And what do they have against you guys? Is it because of the Avengers? Do they take offense to the fact that they risk their lives to save regular human people or what?" I say not understanding why anyone would want to hurt innocent people for the hell of it. I mean most of us in this room aren't innocent, but then you look at someone like Simmons who couldn't possibly have a mean bone in her body.

"Fear. They needed to instill fear into us. Somehow they think we've wronged them. It could be the Avengers or it could something else entirely. Like I said we have no idea why they came after our ship exclusively. Especially since they had the numbers to lead a full fledged attack."

"Hey I think I found something." Skye says over her laptop screen. We all stare at her expectantly.

"They have a website. It's encoded in another website, but if you have a pass-code you can open it. Luckily I don't need a pass-code." She smiles slyly. "It isn't much on the site, just a couple of chats that people have up and something about a meeting they're supposed to be having next week. It doesn't say where they're supposed to meet though. You must have to contact them directly to get the coordinates. What I can tell from the chats is that these people have a lot of hate in them, and it's hate for humans." She turns the laptop around and hands it to Coulson.

I immediately scrunch down to read what it says. The sites colors are in red and black, with a symbol of the Orion constellation as the logo. I look to the comments and see that Skye is right, these people are serious. They go from saying how they never fit in at school, to killing people on the street for looking at them in a strange way. It's like zero to one hundred in about two seconds. Some of the comments get really gory and murderous while others are just trying to convey that they just want to be normal and left alone.

The ones about the group meeting say that they hope they make the cut. It must be some kind of recruitment tryout or something. Reading some of the things these people are saying make me believe that they're just regular kids wanting attention, where as some of them speak directly to how I've felt sometimes. It's scary to think that these naive kids are being turned into psycho murderers.

And then I look at one of the comments underneath all of the teen angsty-ness.

"They came after Shield because they feel like we're pushing them down, so they can't reach their full potential. What that potential is I have no idea, but from what we're reading, I'm guessing they want humans to realize who the better and more advanced race is." Great, and we know exactly where a God complex leads to.

"You don't think that they have enough numbers to try something like Loki did though? Right?" The question comes from Trip. I wonder why it took him so long to speak up. Usually he has no problem.

Coulson takes to answering "Honestly? I have no idea. I wasn't even aware that Orion was even a possible threat until a couple of days ago. They could be capable of anything."

Now everyone in the room looks more defeated then they did before. I look back at Bucky again, but his expression is different. He looks like he would be prepared for a fight if it came to it. Then again Bucky was trained to charge ahead, not scamper away and wait to die. I wish I didn't feel like doing the latter of those two choices, because now I feel like a coward. I hate feeling that way, I'm an agent of Shield dammit! Not some kid at the adult dinner table.

I know that Coulson's going to have to do something if he doesn't want a full scale war on his hands. Before I can say what I'm thinking May speaks up.

"We have to get them out in the open. We need to take care of this before it becomes an issue." Exactly.

"But how are we supposed to do that? Skye said that they only give the secret of where they meet to people they're trying to recruit." Just what I was thinking.

"If they hate Shield they're not going to be happy with a truce." Not if they want world domination.

I'm about to butt in when Coulson says "We send someone in. It'll be tricky but we've sent agents into situations like this before."

"Maybe we can send Peters in. He's dangerous enough that they might buy it."

Okay. Before they can start another conversation about that.

"Me." I say it quickly so I don't have time to rethink it and take it back.

Now everyone is looking at me like I have three heads.

"You?" May says it looking me over, like everyone does, and seems to think I'm delusional if I think they're gonna send me into the field.

"Uh, you know I am an agent right? I've gone on missions before, and I'm also uniquely qualified for this mission." She's about to say something else to me when Coulson cuts in.

"No she's right, she may be the only one we can use for this." Even though he says it confidently, I can see that he's hesitant. He doesn't want me to get hurt, but he has to understand that I need this.

"No." At first I don't realize who said it, all I'm concerned with is telling them off. Only, when I look around the room I can see none of Coulsons agents had said anything. That's when I realize that it didn't come from one of them.

I turn around and see that Bucky's moved, and is now standing right behind me. It was him. His face is cold and serious.

"What?" I say to him, because I don't understand what gives him the right to tell me I can't do something.

He looks past me at Coulson. "Aria isn't ready for this. She hasn't been in the field for years. She can't handle what it would take for a mission like this." If he would look at me right now, he would see the hurt in my eyes. Why is he saying this? He knows that I could do this. I'm stunned into temporary silence.

"Send me in. It would be an easy sell. I'm sure that they already know who I am, it wouldn't be to far of a reach to think that I crossed back over." He's still talking directly to Coulson. I look back over at Coulson and see that he's considering it. Okay, that's enough of that.

"Hell no." I say it loudly. A little to loudly, seeing the shocked looks I'm receiving. So I backtrack a little. "I mean, I can do this sir. I was made to do this mission. And just like agent Barnes" I say swinging Bucky a look "it would be an easy sell. My abilities fit their requirements, and they could definitely be used for evil doing."

The words come out of my mouth before I have a chance to think about them and see that Coulson is shocked that I just let my 'big secret' out like that. I look around the room and before anyone can say or ask anything I say "Yeah I have powers, big deal. Like you haven't seen someone like me before? Get control of yourselves." I say it like it isn't a big deal, even though I know for a fact it is.

It shut them up before they could start though, which is what I was going for.

"You may think that you're qualified for this, but have you ever been in a situation like this before. Where you have to be someone or something that you aren't. You heard what they said, that man was controlling people, would you be able to give up control of yourself. Would you be able to kill someone if it came down to it, or be able to live with yourself if he made the choice for you?" I know that he makes a good point, I just don't like him insinuating that I couldn't possibly be strong enough to do this.

"You know what-" I'm cut off from my rant before I can begin.

"Barnes, Parker kitchen. Now." The order comes from Coulson, and I'm smart enough to follow it.

When we all reach the kitchen, and we're far enough from prying ears "Aria. Sit down."

Couslon says it because he knows that I need to calm down before I lose my cool. Even though I never really had any cool to begin with. I sit down and look up at him expectantly, completely ignoring Bucky who's standing five feet to my right.

"Look Ari, I know it's not something that you want to hear, but Agent Barnes is right.

"Bu-" He give me a warning glance so I shut up and listen.

"He is right in saying that you've never been in a situation like this before. It is one of the hardest things, to give up control of yourself for the good of the mission. To be someone that you hate to be. He's also makes a good point with being able to kill. You've never had to kill someone before." He takes a breath "With all that being said though, I know you can do this. I know that you can put your beliefs and emotions aside to do what needs to be done. That's why I'm letting you in on this mission."

I almost cheer. Instead I just give Bucky a condescending look, as to say haha.

While I sit with a stupid shit-eating grin on my face Bucky tries to get Coulson to change his mind. "Sir, with all due respect, I really think that you're making a horrible decision in sending Aria into this alone. What if something happens and she can't deal with it, or freezes and blows the mission? What if she can't contact you if she needs help? I think you should reconsider, I've been through this before. I can do it again. Especially if it means Aria doesn't have to."

He sound sincere, which pisses me off even more. I get that he's worried for my safety and all that, but why can't he just let me be an agent. This is what we do. Even if I weren't to go on this mission, there would have been another one soon enough, it was just a matter of time. I'm just happy that I'm going to get a chance to prove myself, to prove to everyone else that I am an agent of Shield and I should be treated like one.

I got sucked into this world when I was still a child. I've always been looked down on because I was just a little girl when I went through the academy. No one thought that I stood a chance, and maybe I'm stupid for wanting to prove myself to those asses, but I can't help it. I need them to know that I'm more than just the daughter of Shields top scientists. I need to be known as my own person.

I'm not paying attention to anything Coulson and Bucky are saying because I'm on my own little cloud nine right now. That's why I imagine my face is completely comedic when I hear what Coulson says next.

"I know all of that agent Barnes. That's why you will be accompanying her on this mission." Say what?

"What? No, I don't need a partner on this. I can do it on my own." I can't believe he's going to do this to me. Make me work with someone who doesn't even think I can make the cut.

"I'm sure you can, but it's never bad to have back-up, and it would give us a better chance of taking the Orion group down from the inside if we have two agents infiltrated within the group." I can see his point, but I mean, Really?

Coulson grabs my arm and brings me over to the side so Bucky can't hear us. "Ari, I know how it's been for you. To be so young in an agency like this, but what do you think it's going to be like for him."

He says it while pointing over at Bucky. Huh, I guess I never thought about how that would go down. If it's hard for me, I can only imagine what it's going to be like for Bucky. Damn Coulson and his way of always being able to make me feel guilty.

"If he can be apart of taking down a group like this, it would be easier for him to transition into Shield. Just remember that before trying to fight me on this."

"I'm not going to fight you." Few things shock Coulson, I'll always be one of those thing though.

"Really? You won't fight me on this?"

"Nope. I can see other people's points of view Coulson. I'm not that hard headed."

"Well, okay then." We walk back over to Bucky.

"What do you say agent Barnes? Do you think you can work with Aria on this mission?" Bucky looks over at me and I nod to let him know that I agree with Coulson on this. I don't know why he cares though, a second ago he was trying to take this mission away from me.

"I would be honored." He says as he shakes Coulsons hand.

Honored? Really? It isn't like you're working with the president or anything.

I look away from both of them and see May walk in. "Sir? We have to Helicarriers engine patched up. We can be in the air in five minutes."

Coulson nods at her and walks into the living room. "Okay team, wheels up in five." He says addressing the agents. He then turns back around to me. "We'll bring you in to debrief you of what we learn, you'll also have to brush up on your training and espionage skills. I'll call you tomorrow and we will discus when you'll be sent out to the facility."

"Okay. Sounds good." He smiles and nods at Bucky before walking away.

As the other agents leave they nod their goodbyes. Before Fitz can walk out the door though, I grab him by his uninjured arm. "Hey. Um, I know it isn't any of my business but, whatever happened to you to make you pull back from your team is going to end up hurting you more in the long run. You need to let them in, at least find one of them that you can talk to. It helps, trust me I know."

A surprised look crosses his face, like he thought that he was hiding it better. "Yeah, okay. Thank you by the way." When I look confused he raises his arm "For patching me up."

"O you're welcome and I hope you can work through whatever it is." He nods and walks away toward the Helicarrier.

The last to leave is Trip. "Hey, I know that you can do this. Don't let anything bring you down Ar." I smile at him and give him a hug. Which I seldom do. He hugs me back, and even though it's brief, it makes me feel better. Trip always has a way of doing that, he can make anyone feel better about themselves.

Once everyone is gone I shut the door and start cleaning up in the living room. Bucky comes in and helps me in silence. When we're done I go into the kitchen and grab a bottle of water to take to bed with me. When I pass Bucky's room upstairs he comes out and follows me to my door.

I turn around, because he obviously wants to tell me something. I wait for him to spit it out.

"I'm glad that we'll be together on this, to cover each other backs. I hope you know that I never meant to make you fell like you're less of an agent for not being in the field I-"

Before he can apologize more, I cut in "It doesn't matter anymore, we're both on this mission now. Coulson was right in putting us both on this. We're partners in this now though, so we can't let emotions interfere. So no more saying sorry." I turn around and open my door "And just remember now that we're partners, that's all we can be. We can't be friends. We can't be anything else then what the mission entails."

I turn my back and shut the door before anything else can be said.


	12. Taking Small Steps

**So I'm a little late with this chapter. I know that I could blame it on the fact that my birthday was on Saturday and I've been busy, but honestly I just couldn't get the words to flow. I had Five thousand words, which is basically standard, written up but I still had a couple more scenes to write. So I decided to make it one big chapter and call it a day. It's actually Four O'clock in the morning right now so I'm pretty tired. I don't even know what I'm writing for this A/N right now. I'm just typing, and typing, and typing- O wait I knew what I wanted to do. I want to thank my peoples.**

**First and foremost I gotta thank my reviewer deathbat666. That review motivated me to write the five thousand words that I probably would have put off, so basically you're the reason this chap. Is being posted right now. Thank you. And let's just say they aren't going to have the smoothest time.**

**Thank you lynnenikko666 for following and favoriting both my story and myself, confidence boost achieved. Also a thank you to stephaniejeanlovestoread for following, Blair Cornelia Deveraux for favoriting, and Oh To Fly for both favoriting and following my story. You guys are awesome.**

**Please remember to review after reading. It really does keep me motivated, hearing from you guys.**

**See bottom for A/N.**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own crap. O well.**

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Chapter Song: War Paint By: Kelly Clarkson

Face to face, but miles away

Building trenches out of empty spaces

Lay here, next to me

And close the distance in between

Scar to scar, I wanna know

Every story that you've never told

Don't shut me out, don't think to much

Don't keep that barricade up

Don't be afraid, let me in

Cause we could be beautiful without our war paint, our war paint

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Chapter 12: Taking Small Steps

"Okay. Now one hundred more."

Ugh. No more.

I'm in one of the training rooms on the Shield base that I'm currently stationed at. I've been here for about two weeks and have yet to do any hand-to-hand combat. Agent Andrew Clark, or as I like to secretly call him, Agent slave driver, has been trying to get me back into shape before I start my 'real' training for the mission. Basically he's having me start from the basics.

He was assigned to me when I first arrived at the base and the second I laid my eyes on him I knew that this wasn't going to be easy for me. He just looks like a hard-ass. I was right in my assumption, Clark has been making me get up at the crack of dawn to do sprints, which I totally love by the way. Right after we finish (I finish) doing the sprints, he makes me do two hundred push-ups and one hundred pull-ups. It almost killed me on my first day here. Hasn't anyone ever told this guy you need to start out slow and work your way up? Apparently not.

Once I'm done with my morning work-out, I'm sent down to Agent Lila Hudson for my daily debriefing and lesson in espionage. They debrief me on what they've learned about the Orion group that day. Which hasn't been much yet, we haven't been able to hack into any of their coded messages or get a read on where their base of operation is. Espionage training is my favorite part of the day. I'm placed in a bunch of different situations that may be a possibility for this mission, and find my way out of it.

Agent Hudson has told me that I excel at improvising under pressure. I figured I would be, when you lie to everyone that you know it becomes second nature.

Even though I may bitch for having to do all of this, seeing as how I've been an agent for a while now, I like having something to focus on. I've always felt better when I have a routine to follow and to be honest, I kind of missed this. The training, the small talk you make with agents you pass in the halls, the general simplicity of it all.

Don't get me wrong, the exercise and emotional output you have to go through when being re-trained is grueling, but it's worth it. It's what I'm meant to do. I can pretend that I'm normal all I want, but I'm always going to be an agent of Shield and I can't change that. No matter how hard I try.

Plus the fact that I haven't seen Bucky for two weeks may have to do with it. He was sent to a different facility. One that specializes in training new recruits that have crossed over from the other side. I guess precautions have to be taken when dealing with something delicate like that.

It was strange at first, not seeing him everyday. I had gotten used to him being around. Even if we didn't see eye to eye all of the time, I actually liked having someone around I could have a real conversation with. If only I could have said that to him before all of this went into motion. Now I'll be lucky if I get the chance.

I don't really have a minute to think about him all that much though. Since I get up at five in the morning and go until I get into bed at ten at night. It's been constant go, go, go, since I got here. I wish I could take a break sometimes. Especially at times like this.

"Are you serious? I already did my hundred. You want more?" I say to Clark while breathing in heavy gulps of air. "I might die if I do any more."

"A hundred more Parker. I've gone easy on you for long enough." He says while he hits the punching bag that he's been beating on for an hour now.

"Easy!? You call this shit easy? I'm about to keel over. Plus I gotta get to my lesson with agent Hudson." She's pretty easygoing of a person, but I'm not gonna let that on while I'm around him. If I did he would probably keep me here til one, and I ain't about that.

"Didn't she tell you?" He asks, stopping his assault on the bag for a moment.

I grab my towel off the bench, situated against one of the walls, and wipe the sweat that's gathered on my forehead. "Tell me what?"

"She was given an assignment yesterday. She left last night, told the director that you're espionage training was complete. She said that you're ready for the field." He takes a drink from his bottle of whatever gross antioxidant drink mix he made for himself today. He tried to get me to drink it once, I outright laughed in his face.

I take a pause from my heavy breathing, "She said that I was ready? So does that mean I get my mission specs now?"

That's what I've been working toward. When we're deemed ready by our trainers we're given a file on everything they expect us to learn, and become, for the assignment. That's also when we learn our new identities. We have to memorize all of the things in the file. I wanted to get the file as soon as possible, so I can have more time to memorize it all. I've never been all that great at remembering things. I used to have to write flash cards for my missions, so I could quiz myself. I'm not sure I'll have that luxury for this mission though.

Clark looks at me like I'm the stupidest person on planet Earth. C'mon, I'm not that bad. "No, you aren't going to be given your mission specs until I clear you for field duty. I'm not even close to clearing you yet. You still have a lot to learn kid."

What the shit! "I've done everything you've asked of me. You haven't let me get in the ring with anyone, hell you haven't let me do anything except build up muscle. You have no idea what I can do, or what I need to learn, because you haven't even given me a chance to show you. I'm a pretty damn good fighter, you don't know that though because you refuse to let me fucking fight!" I'm out of breath again when I finish.

I wasn't really planing on freaking out on him. I tried being patient. It hasn't worked. He's just another one who thinks I don't have what it takes to do this. It's really starting to piss me off.

"Well first off, you need to learn respect. You don't talk like that to your superiors. Secondly, you can't lose your shit like that when you're working from the inside of a group like Orion. You better get control of it, or else I won't be clearing you at all." He says, scolding me.

Well maybe to get respect you gotta give it. Psh, superior? What the hell make him superior over me? I want more than anything to tell him off some more, but instead I just go with, "Yes sir, I'll work on it." I try to say it without sarcasm, I'm not sure I succeeded. He turns his back on me and continues working the bag, letting me know he's done with talking.

I go back over to the bar and start my pull-ups again, working my arms past the point of no return. I had just gotten rid of the aching that comes after these too. Now my whole body's going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow morning.

Not only has he not given me the chance to properly train, he won't even sign off on weapons training. I was looking forward to having a bow in my hands again. Of course I'll never get the chance if Clark has anything to say about it, and I'm sure he does. I wish I had laser vision so he could feel the holes I'm burning into his back right now.

Once I'm done with my pull-ups I go over to the bench to sit for a minute. I look over at Clark and see that he's done with the bag and is now doing sit-ups. God, does he ever stop? I wonder what I'm going to be doing now if I'm done with my espionage training. I lean back against the wall and close my eyes.

I let my thoughts wander. I'm taken back to when I was first training to become a Shield agent. I was twelve at the time and I had been begging my parents to let me train for a while. I first wanted to learn when they had taken me to Shield headquarters. They were there for a meeting and brought me along so that they could show me around. Seeing as how I was now a powered individual, I was going to be spending a lot of time here or in other Shield bases.

While they were in their meeting I decided to investigate, I had stopped at a window separating the hallway from the room inside. There were agents practicing their combat skills with each other. I was amazed by it, they seemed so in control of their bodies. Something that I hadn't been able to accomplish yet.

My parents eventually found me standing there after an hour, with the same amazed look on my face. Once they explained that the people in that room were training to become field agents, I told them I needed to be one too. I wouldn't shut up about it.

At first they laughed at me thinking I was joking, but they soon figured out that I was dead serious. They tried everything they could to distract me from it. Of course I'm not one to let things that I want go. After two years of non-stop pressure, they finally allowed me to enroll thinking that there was no way I would be accepted. To their utter astonishment, I was accepted. By none other than Phil Coulson himself. He had agreed with me, saying that I should know how to defend myself in case anything happened. Plus it would help me learn discipline, which would in turn help me master my abilities.

My first day was easy, so was the rest of that week in fact. I was the only one in my 'class' and was instructed by a really nice female agent named Katherine Pikes. I remember her so well because I was always angry with her. She would never allow me to do anything that could 'endanger myself'. Which pissed me off. I wanted to be treated like everyone else. I brought my complaints to Coulson, and after discussing it with my parents he put me in the regular program. I knew that my parents thought I wouldn't be able to take it. That's exactly why after being beaten up regularly, I still refused to admit defeat.

I refused because I knew that everyone around me was rooting for me to fail. My parents, my classmates, everyone. It didn't help that the people in my class were five to eight years older than me. They all avoided me like I was the plague, and that's when the class instructor stepped in. Agent Wilson Jensen.

Agent Jensen decided to take it upon himself to directly train me. He would keep me after class and help me with my technique. He created a specific program just for me. So that I could continue to work my way up to where the others already were. Jensen never treated me like I was a lesser agent because of my age or size, and he didn't coddle me like everyone else. He taught me how to use my own weaknesses against my opponent. He would work me until I thought I couldn't do anymore, and then make me keep going. If I told him I couldn't he would tell me that I wasn't made to be an agent and leave the room. I would sit in pity, wanting to quit for a while. Then I would suck it up and continue on.

Most mornings Jensen would come in and find me sleeping on one of the mats because I never went back to my room. Then I would wake up and start all over again. He was the only person who believed in me enough to put forth the effort to train me like a real agent. Jensen was the reason why I graduated top of my class at the age of fourteen. I could kick the ass of someone who had decades over me. He taught me that even though I was smaller and younger, I could still be an agent of Shield.

Somewhere along the way I decided I didn't care what my parents or fellow recruits thought. I worked hard for one person. It was for Agent Jensen. I wasn't going to let him down, not when he fought so hard for me. He was my mentor and someone that I actually respected.

That's why when I found out that he had died during an ambush in the Egyptian desert two years ago, I was heartbroken. It was the worst year of my life because he died three months before my parents did. It was like I had lost three parents in the span of four months. It took me a couple of weeks to come out of the hole I had dug for myself. To be honest, I'm not really sure that I've ever truly come out of it.

For a long time, I regretted never telling him about my abilities. I felt like I was lying to his face every time we trained. Only after his death did Coulson tell me that Jensen knew all along. When Coulson found out that he would be spending a lot of time with me he let him in on the secret. He wanted him to be prepared in case I lost myself and went off during a session. Coulson told him that I was still unpredictable, and I could break at any moment.

After spending some time with me one on one Jensen told Coulson that I was one of the strongest most level-headed kids he had ever known. If only he could see me now. He never let on to me that he knew though. I think in his way he was trying to help me, give me an outlet where I could completely be myself without worrying about my abilities getting in the way.

Level-headed, I know right. That sounds nothing like me. I was a different person back then. I wasn't as jaded and cynical about the world. I miss the person that I used to be, I want her back. I can never go back though, I learned that a long time ago.

"Get up Parker!" I sit up stick straight, feeling embarrassed for allowing my mind to travel so far away. I look up at Clark and see that he's a little red in the face with anger. He must have been calling my name for a while before I finally heard him. He looks like he was about to smack me out of my daze.

"Sorry, what?" He gives me an exasperated look.

"You've been assigned guard detail for tonight. Ten O'clock. So I suggest you get your ass up and take a shower while you can, you stink." He says it and then walks out of the room. Stomping the entire way. Could he be even the tiniest bit nicer? I mean I know that he's stuck with me for now, but maybe if he would just clear me for duty I could get out of his hair and he wouldn't have to deal with me anymore.

Until then, I wasn't going to take it easy on him. I'm going to be the biggest pain in the ass that he's ever met.

Guard detail, my favorite. All you do is walk around the base for hours on end, bored out of your mind. I was put on detail the second night after I arrived. I hated it. It seems like tonight won't be any different, being that I'm sore, angry, and tired. Not a great combination. Plus detail usually entails having a partner with you, so you can look after the other just in case something try's to attack.

Last time I had to deal with agent Carson, an annoyingly chipper guy. All he wanted to talk about was the Avengers, which usually I'm alright with, but he has some kind of hero worship going on. Every time I would try to change the subject to anything else, he would find a way to lead it back to Avengers. At least I wasn't as tired then as I am right now. If I had been, I probably would have lost my shit and punched him in the face.

I'm just praying that I'm not stuck with Carson again because I just may have to break a bone to get out of it. I stand up from my comfy spot on the bench and collect my things up off of the floor. I walk to my room on the second floor of the base, passing some agents on my way. I wave to them and give the most convincing smile that I can manage.

Once I'm in my room I immediately flop down on my little bed. I look over at my alarm clock, sitting on my bedside table, and see that it's almost eight. Good I have a little time to relax before I take my shower. I close my eyes for a couple of minutes.

I end up lying there for thirty minutes when I hear my phone chirp, letting me know that I've got a text. I begrudgingly sit up and check it. It's from Coulson, it says to call him in the morning, he has some tings that he needs to discus with me. I hope that it's about the mission specs. I just want to get it all over with so I can start feeling fully ready for this. Until I learn what I'm going to be doing, I'm going to be worrying that I'm unprepared.

I get up off of the bed and head into the bathroom, I strip off my clothes and stare at my reflection. I can see bruises on my arms and shins from overuse. I can also see that I've lost some of the fat on my stomach and now am developing muscle there. The same goes for my arms and legs. I can see that Clarks extreme workouts have shown to benefit my body, which pisses me off even more.

Yeah I can complain, but now I'm a hypocrite for saying that the workouts aren't helping me in any way. I look up at my face and see that my cheeks have sunken in a little. I know that I haven't been eating as much as I should, but by the time I'm finished with my sessions with Clark and Hudson, I go to my room and crash. Before I can critic myself any further I step into the shower.

I'm rewarded with instant muscle relaxation. I can feel the tension in my body fade away as the water runs over me. Once I'm done washing I turn the water off, to my body's protest, and step out to dry.

As I'm getting dressed for detail I can feel myself tense again. Every step I take hurts my entire body. Damn, I wish I was assigned to Pikes. She wouldn't have made me do anything. She would've just put me through immediately.

I work my way to the cafeteria and use my meal card to buy a burger and a chocolate milkshake. It's nine fifteen so I have a little time before I have to sign in. I eat my burger and suck down my milkshake a little to fast, which gives me a brain freeze. I rub my temples and lay my head on the table. I feel like this day couldn't possibly get any worse.

The second I think it I know I shouldn't have. Whenever you think things can't get worse the world always shows you that it can.

"Shit. Now what'll happen." I say it out loud to myself. I half expect to slip on something as I make my way to the trashcans. I throw my trash away. Okay, so far so good. Maybe the universe decided to let up on me and give me a break for a couple hours. I start to make my way to the detail station. It's inside a small outpost situated right outside of the base. I swipe my key card and go inside.

I'm greeted by the post guard, Jackson Grieves. He's sitting at a desk in front of a bunch of screens that have the security footage on them. "Hey Ari. How's it going?" He says as he turns to look at me.

"Fine I guess. Clark's still giving me a hard time though. I feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer multiple times. So if you consider that good, then I guess I'm freakin fantastic." I say sarcastically.

He cringes "I know how that is, Clark was my class instructor my first year. He's one angry person. Well at least you won't have to spend that much more time with him since you're already trained."

"Yeah if only he would see that. I don't know if he'll ever clear me for field." I say sounding defeated while leaning my arms on the table.

"Just give it some time. He'll eventually see how kick-ass you are. Tell you what, once he officially clears you we'll celebrate. Maybe we can go out for some actual food, instead of the crap they feed us here. What do you say?" He says it giving me a hopeful look.

I know exactly what he's trying to do. He's been working on asking me out since we met. He stops me to strike up a conversation whenever I walk by him. At first he seemed a little shy, like he was afraid that I would shoo him away. Once he found out I wasn't a complete bitch is when he took it a step further. He started dropping hints a couple days ago. For example, he would say things like: "I'm probably going off base with a couple other agents tonight if you wanna tag along" or "I can't wait to get out of here, I haven't seen the sun in months. Hey maybe they'll put me on the mission with you", I was wondering when he would finally work up the nerve to ask me out.

I was secretly hoping that he would give up though. I new I should keep my distance as soon as he asked me if I was seeing anyone. I'm not really looking for a boyfriend right now, actually it's one of the last things on my mind. Looking at Jack now though, I realize maybe I was giving off the wrong signals.

I look at him, actually look at him for the first time since I met him, and I see that he's really kind of cute. Especially with the puppy dog eyes he's giving me right now. If I had to guess I'd say he's probably around six feet tall, with a light muscular build. He has tanned skin and dark hair cut short (the cut most male agents have). He has a smile that could brighten up any room and brown/green eyes that always sparkle with happiness.

I'm actually thinking of taking him up on his offer. I mean, how bad could one date be? I could do a whole lot worse than Jack. I might be able to see myself with him, he could balance my sarcastic attitude out. It would be easy with Jack. I would never be able to tell him about my abilities but still, he wouldn't expect anything out of me, except for me to be myself. I'm about to say yes to him when a nagging thought in the back of my mind stops me.

It's saying "Jackson isn't the one that you want. Is it really fair to be with him when you constantly think of someone else? Do you want to end up breaking the poor guys heart when he figures it out? Because he will figure it out, you're not going to be able to keep your desires to yourself forever. There's going to come a point where you're going to give in. He shouldn't have to go through the fallout." I try to push it back to where it came from, but I can't stop thinking it.

I know that it isn't fair to him, he's such a good guy. I know that I could be selfish and say yes, not caring what happens to him when the shit hits the fan. I can't be selfish with him though, he's to good for that. I'm about to tell him that I probably won't be able to go anywhere after I'm cleared, seeing as how I'll be going straight into the mission. Hoping that he won't be to hurt by that. But before I can say anything we're interrupted by a knock on the door.

Jackson looks a little annoyed when he turns to check who it is on the monitor. While he's preoccupied, I take the chance to put my gear on and grab a tranq gun. I still have my back to Jackson when he says "looks like your partners here." Please, on all that is holy in this world, don't let it be Carson. I keep my back to the door, hoping that if I don't turn around I'll have a better chance at it not being Carson. Plus if it is him, the second I turn around he's going to start on me with the Avengers nonsense.

I hear Jack roll his chair and click a pen open "I gotta sign you in before I let you take any weapons from the vault. What's your name?"

"James Barnes."

Even though I wasn't really paying any attention, I would still know that voice, and name, anywhere.

I don't want to move because if I move he's going to spot me. All I want to do is curl up on the ground and become non-existent. I thought that I would have some more time to deal with my own shit before I had to deal with our shit. I didn't think that we would have to see each other until we were brought in for the pre-mission meeting.

I new I shouldn't have jinx myself, things can always get worse.

"Alright agent Barnes. What is your reason for being here?"

"I was put on fence detail."

I know I can't hide forever. I turn around and look at Bucky for the first time in two weeks. He is still standing in front of Jackson, he doesn't see me just yet. I take those few moments to admire- I mean, look him over.

He looks almost exactly like he did two weeks ago. The only difference is the drawn look on his face. Like he's been awake the entire time he's been gone. I can see that he's gained more muscle too, like me. Only unlike me he looks solid, he must be eating the crappy food then. All in all he seems okay. I don't know what I was expecting though. What, was he going to look devastated because I wasn't with him twenty-four seven. C'mon. Just because I missed him a little doesn't mean he felt the same, and it doesn't matter to me anyway.

My time surveying him is over though, when Jack says, "You're all set agent Barnes. You can get your gear right over here, and your patrolling partner for tonight is going to be agent Parker." Jack nods his head in my direction.

It's like time stops for a moment when our eyes meet. I'm just kidding, shit like that doesn't happen in real life. He does look over at me though, and I do stop breathing for a second. He's doing the same thing to me that I just did to him a moment ago. The expression on his face stays the same the whole time, he doesn't as much as crack a smile at me. I honestly don't know how to feel about that.

Jackson seems to notice the tension in the room because he asks, "Do you two know each other already?"

Bucky and I both shake ourselves out of our staring contest and reply, "Yes." "Kind of." We say it at the same time and Jack looks confused as hell. "So you do know each other." This time it's directed at me.

"Yeah. We're being put on the Orion mission together." I say it simply, like it isn't a big deal. Like I'm not completely freaked out about the fact that Bucky and I may be spending weeks if not months together. All while trying to keep our covers in tact. God I really want to be able to pull this through, but I'm reminded of why I wanted to avoid him for as long as possible.

The second I heard his voice I was struck all at once with the emotions I was trying to repress. This is going to be impossible. I better get used to pushing them away. I realize I was starting to drift when I hear Bucky asks, "Are you ready?"

He's standing by the door with his gun already in hand. I nod my head, deciding not to reply altogether. Maybe if I don't talk to him he'll let me be. He walks out the door and I start to follow.

"Hey Ari? Did you think about my offer?" What offer? It takes me a second to remember what he's talking about, he means the date. I turn around so I can directly speak to him, since it's rude to turn someone down with your back to them. When I face him though I'm reminded of why I wanted to say yes in the first place. I want to just tell him no but I find I can't speak. I've turned someone down before, why can't I do it now?

"Yeah. I would love too, just tell me when okay?" Fuck. What did I just do? Why?

At first he looks shocked, like he thought I was going to turn him down for sure. Then he gets this big smile on his face, which makes him even more adorable, and replies, "Okay. Yeah, I'll be sure to do that." I smile back at him and walk out the door.

Why in God's name did I do that? I know I'm not interested in him, so why couldn't I just get no out?

I make my way to where Bucky is standing, and I am hit with why I said yes. My heart was telling me no, it would just hurt Jackson, probably myself, in the long run. My brain however, was telling me to go for it. I said yes because I need a distraction from the man I'm standing next to. I have to do something to distract myself from the feelings I have for him, find a way to direct them to someone else. I know it's wrong but who knows, maybe I'll learn to like Jackson?

Yeah just keep telling yourself that, the little voice inside of me says. That voice needs to pipe the fuck down.

"We'll start at the west gate and make our way around." I say to Bucky while walking ahead of him. He doesn't say anything, which is fine by me. We make our way to the west gate and I start doing the fence check. "I'll check the week points in the fence and you keep guard. Okay?" I still don't look back at him, so I'm assuming he nodded or something.

The fence surrounding the base is one like you would see at a prison, reassuring I know. It's completely metal with barbs surrounding the top. There are trespassing and condemned signs posted all over it. So if someone were to stumble upon it, it would seem as if it was closed for the safety reasons. I always liked the creative ways Shield try's to hide their secret bases.

Bucky and I keep walking in silence for about half an hour, when he breaks it and says, "How is your training going?" I was hoping the tense silence would last a little bit longer.

I sigh, "It's going okay." Thinking he'll drop back into silence I keep moving forward. Which only seems to make him angry, he grabs my arm and spins me around to face him.

"Why won't you look at me? I already apologized to you for trying to get you taken off of the mission. Are you really that angry with me for trying to protect you?" Every emotion that I'd been trying to hold back comes rushing to the surface, and anger is the first one I grab onto.

"Protect me?! Don't use that as a cop out for trying to get me pulled from the mission. You know damn well that I can protect myself, and I sure as hell don't need you to protect me!" I scream it at him, he has a genuine look of surprise on his face.

"It isn't a cop out. I was doing what I thought was best for you." He somehow manages to keep his nerves cool after I just screamed at him.

"And how would you know what's best for me, huh? You barely know me. What gives you the right to try and decide what's good for me?" This time I don't scream it at him, but I do say it in a tense and low voice.

"You're right. I don't know you all that well, but I thought that we had an understanding of each other. You said it yourself that we're alike in certain ways. So when I heard the Director say that he was going to put you on this mission I acted out of instinct, an instinct I honestly didn't know I still possessed. That instinct was to protect you, a person I care about, and I thought that I could do that by keeping you away from the danger that'll come with this. I now see that I was wrong, but I never meant to undermine you in any way. I know that you're a skilled agent. Hell, you took in a cold blooded assassin who could have been working for the other side for all you knew. You took a chance on me where others wouldn't have and from here on out I will be the first to stand behind you whenever you need me. I promise."

I'm sure I look like a deer in headlights, because I sure as hell wasn't expecting that long speech. I can see the sincerity in his eyes, he really means it. I can't find anything to say, everything I had prepared was meant to be yelled. He did the one thing no one else has ever been able to do. He caught me off guard, with my walls down. I feel vulnerable, which is something I never allow. I've been staring wide eyed at him for a good two minutes now. I should probably say something.

I blink a few times to give myself a moment to try and gather thoughts, any thoughts. I open my mouth but I haven't come up with anything. I start to feel stupid, standing there with my mouth wide open. I can feel myself blush and I'm praying it isn't visible in the dark.

Before I make a complete ass out of myself I say the only thing I can think up, "Thank you." Which comes out as more of a croak since my vocal cords seem to be stunned into silence. I turn back around toward the fence and start walking again, feeling super awkward.

My head is in a daze as I walk. How does he do it? First he's an emotionless robot who doesn't say anything. Next he starts worming his way into my life without even trying. Then he finds a weak spot he didn't even know I had, and I decide to label him as an asshole. Now he's apologizing and making me feel all nervous and weird. Somewhere along the way our relationship changed. I went from hating him for no reason, to him being the only thing I can think about.

Couldn't he have just stayed the emotionless robot. I mean things would be so much simpler.

I don't even know what it is about him that makes me want him so much. I know it isn't based on his good looks. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's incredibly easy on the eyes but there are a lot of hot normal guys out there that I could be with. I don't think it's his personality either because I haven't been around him long enough to get a grip on what the real Bucky Barnes acts like. He had to have been a good guy though, seeing as how his best friend is still trying to get that part of him back.

I'm still in front of him, checking the fence, when it hits me.

He's the only person who's ever made me feel accepted. I opened up to him because I knew he would never judge me. I know it sounds idiotic, but no one has ever made me feel as comfortable as he has. I know I could tell him almost anything and he would take it in stride. That's the reason why I've never dated anyone. I could never truly be who I am because they couldn't possibly understand me. Only, Bucky does, he understands because he's in the same boat that I am. He's never expected anything of me. He wants me for me. That's why I was so angry when he tried to replace me on the mission, because I trusted him to have my back. I trusted him. I don't even trust myself and yet I trust him. When did that happen?

"Ari? You okay?" I realize I stopped dead in front of him.

I turn around and clear my throat. "Yeah I was just thinking."

"About?" He asks with furrowed brows, I'm sure he's thinking that I'm going to start yelling at him again.

I know because I can feel how startled he is when I grab his face and smash my lips against his. He tenses up for a second, like he doesn't understand what I'm doing. He relaxes when he realizes I'm not trying to pull away. His molds his lips and moves them against mine perfectly. His hands grab my waist, pulling me in. When there's no space between us I stretch up on my tip toes to deepen the kiss. One of Bucky's hand circles around to the small of my back pressing me even closer, if that's possible, while the other one shapes to the back of my head tipping it back to give him better access of my mouth. I move my hands from his face so I can circle my arms around his neck. Before I can deepen the kiss any further Bucky beaks away from me, moving to rest his forehead against mine.

I stare up into his beautiful diamond blue eyes. We're both breathing heavy, neither of us making to move away. We're oblivious to the world around us. Right in this moment, it's just him and I. Standing like this, with our arms around each other. This feels even more intimate than the kissing. I feel like he's staring into my soul, and I'm not afraid. I know I could tell him my darkest secrets and he wouldn't bat an eye.

Bucky closes his eyes and I can feel him smile against my lips. It's one of his real smiles, the ones I love. I close my eyes and breath him in. He smells of sawdust and cinnamon. A scent I'm forever going to associate with him. I feel him move his hand from the back of my head, his fingers gently grazing my face. He places his warm palm on my blushed cheek. I open my eyes to see him already gazing down at me. I smile, really smile, for the first time in weeks. I know I shouldn't be here with him, I should be the one to walk away, but I can't bring myself too. I let all of my worries go, because right now all I can think about is the way Bucky's holding me. It's even better than I imagined it would be.

He leans back down toward me. His lips grazing across mine again, but this time is different than a moment ago. This time he's kissing me like we have all the time in the world, he's not rushing anything. It's not lust filled, it's sweet and slow.

I've only ever kissed two people in the world. The first was Rodney Hershel in third grade. It was a dare from my friends, and I'm never one to back out of a dare. The second was Bucky. I know, but like I said before I've never been interested in having a relationship like that. Right now I'm starting to regret that decision. Even though I know nothing could ever compare to the way Bucky's kissing me now. I feel like I could do this forever.

We move our lips in sync. He must have noticed that I'm not all that experienced in this department. So he's being sweet and gentle with me. Which is nice and all but I don't really want sweet and gentle right now.

I take my hands from around his neck and rake my fingers through his hair. I press my body closer to his, if that's even possible. I can feel his fingers curl into my back, like he's trying to keep himself in control. I slip my tongue out of my mouth to taste his lips. He must not have been expecting that, and takes in a sharp breadth of air. I take the chance to touch my tongue to his. He reacts immediately and starts an invasion on my mouth. I don't even realize that we've moved until I feel the bark of a tree rough against my back. Bucky backed me up until my whole body is aligned between his and the tree.

I know his earlier resolve is breaking when I feel his hand slip under the hem of my shirt and come into contact with the skin of my lower back. He doesn't make a move other than that though. He just rubs his thumb lightly against my skin. I gasp at when I feel the cool metal on my back, electrifying me. He seems to take that as a good sign because he moves his mouth away from mine, and starts an attack on my throat. He moves his lips slowly over my pulse point and I moan at the feel of it. Bucky's hand starts to move upward under my shirt, testing the waters. I feel his tongue come out as he starts licking and sucking on the sensitive spot he's discovered. I'm breathing heavier than before and my grip in his hair has tightened. I'm not even thinking about the fact that we're out in the open. Anyone could just walk by and catch our heady make-out session, I don't care though. This feels to good to let go. Bucky leaves the spot on my throat and works his lips along my neck toward my ear. I've moved my hands from his head and am now gripping the front of his shirt, pulling him closer. He stops his kisses when he gets to my ear, and he's about to say something when we hear a noise.

We both come out of the haze immediately, guards back up. We freeze and I try to hone in on the sound. I can't really hear anything over the sound of him breathing though. I try to stay focused. We hear faint cracking sounds from above, (above?) and then boots crunching the leaves under them when someone drops from the tree next to us.

Bucky spins around, looking deadly as ever, and I step out from behind him. What I see is the end barrel of a gun, pointed directly at Bucky. I move my eyes from the gun to the assailant. The assailant we allowed to sneak up on us during a vulnerable moment. I can't make out any features in the darkness, though I can see that whoever it is, is male. Before Bucky or I can make a move to get the gun away from him, two more men drop from the trees. Wonderful, did everyone watch us make-out?

With three guns on us I decide I should be the one to try and talk seeing as how Bucky's a more act now talk later type of person "What do you want?" I ask it boringly, like I couldn't care less. Which is the furthest from the truth. For a split second I think that maybe this is Coulson trying to test our ability to work as partner.

The one straight in front of use is the first to talk, "We are the children of Orion, we are here to rid the world of the abominations called humans. Starting with this base." Alright, sooo not Coulson.

And I thought things couldn't possibly get worse. Why do I always have to prove myself wrong?

**A/N: So yeah, what'd you think? This is the first heated romance scene I have ever written. Please, please, let me know if it was okay. I must know, okay uh, bye.**


	13. Never Will I Ever

**Hello readers. I'm sure you think I'm writing from the grave right now because it's been forever since I last posted. Well I'm happy to tell you I, as well as my story, are alive and kicking. A lot of craps been going on in my personal life which means I haven't had as much time to write as I normally do. Things are starting to come together though so I will get that time back. So, if you're still with me, thank you. Plus check the bottom for some new story deats!**

**I gotta thank my peoples, so give me a sec.**

**Thanks mistyworld, SheerTwilight, MissSweetApple28, Victoria C. Black, creativeBUBBLE, and Megan1130 for following this story. SheerTwilight, Jovie Black, MissSweetApple28, Victoria C. Black, and Megan1130 for favoriting this story. **

**Reviews: SheerTwilight: Thanks I'm really happy you like it, and thanks for fav/following me as an author that's awesome of you. Megan1130: O my God, I read your review and I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face for about an hour. I'm so glad your digging it and I promise for more Bucky/Aria "moments" in the near future, and thanks for fav/following me as an author I really appreciate it. And to the guest reviewer: Here's your new chapter, hope you like it. One last shout-out to MissSweetApple28 for fav/following me as an author, I love that. ****Here's the chap. You've all been waiting for, I promise it won't take me as long to post the next one. I also promise some more fluff moments.**

**R****emember! With every review I get my writing speed increases ten percent! So please review after reading.**

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Never Will I Ever

"Wow, Abominations? Isn't that word a little strong? I'm slightly insulted." I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I'm currently speaking to the one standing in front of the others, he seems like the groups leader. I still can't see any of them properly though, just their profiles. The only thing I can see is that they're all dressed in black with hoods on, concealing their faces.

No one else is talking, so I take the lead "So, how long have you guys been up in those trees? A couple minutes? A couple hours? Just an estimate." I can actually feel Bucky swing me a look, telling me that now is not the time to worry about how much of our make-out they just saw.

C'mon though. It is kinda creepy that they waited until we were really getting into it to jump outta the trees like a bunch of pervy ninjas.

"We were up there for as long as we needed to be." Okay. Can you say cryptic?

"So.. you were what, staking us out?" As long as they needed to be implies that they were waiting for something to happen.

"Waiting…." Alrighy then. Not much of a talker. His short answer still puts me on edge though. What exactly were they waiting for?

The one talking sounds like a robot. It reminds me of how Bucky was when we first met. That thought makes me sad and angry at the same time. It scares me to think of what made them this way.

I'm brought back to Anna. The woman Bucky killed to protect me. I think about her constantly, guiltily.

Then again Anna never acted like this guy around me. She seemed like a normal person, a bitch, but a normal person. That's wrong I shouldn't think stuff like that about the dead. Maybe she wasn't like that before all of this. I mean, she didn't even have a choice in whether she lived or died. These people took that from her, they took it from everyone in their so called 'group'. People who might have been innocent before all of this.

I feel it right then, the hate.

In this moment I know that I'll do whatever it takes to stop them. I won't allow any more people to be brought into this.

The small group isn't making a move toward us. Actually, they haven't moved at all. And now I have a sick feeling in my gut that they aren't the only ones on the base.

"How many of you are here right now?" I ask the question, since they answered my last one.

"Thirty-three." O God. That's what they were 'waiting' for.

I move over closer to Bucky's side. "We gotta get out of this. We have to go help the others, Most of the agents in there have never been in the field. They have no idea how to deal with an attack." I say it in a hushed whisper, hoping they can't hear me. Even if they did they probably wouldn't care or even register.

Before Bucky can speak the leader abruptly says "Orion is the next step in the evolutionary chain. We are now the superior species." Alright, he's really starting to piss me off, can I punch this creep now?

"We're going to have to fight our way out." Bucky says and I nod, letting him know I understand. I figured that's how this would go, seeing as how none of them will move. I'm sure they've been prepared for a fight.

Because you don't try to take over a Shield base without there being a battle.

"Remember their abilities though." I say to him. We have no idea what any of them can do and the worst way possible to find out, is in the middle of a fight. Such is my life.

"I'll take the right, you take the left." He says, gesturing with his hand.

"What about him." I say pointing to the one in front of us.

"Save him for last. We may need him conscience." I nod. That's a good idea since he seems to be the only one who can speak, or who's allowed to speak.

Bucky and I take our stances beside each other. I turn slightly, so that I'm facing off with the one to our left. I'm ready to strike as soon as Bucky makes his move. I'm following his direction on this since he's been in situations like this one before. Otherwise, I would have already attacked.

I'm holding my breath, waiting for someone to make a move when an explosion sounds off in the distance. I'm momentarily distracted by is, but Bucky decides to take the distraction while yelling "Now" at me.

I feel him move away from my side and it only takes me a second to concentrate again. I lunge. My victim must not have been expecting that because I easily knock him to the ground with force. He struggles against me trying to move me, but I lock my legs on top of his, to keep him from kicking me off. When I feel like I have the advantage, I punch him straight in the face. I put all of my weight behind it, and I feel him stop moving under me. I remove the hood from his face and see that I managed to knock him out. Huh, I guess Clark's hardcore training sessions have worked in my favor, not that I would ever admit that out loud.

I check his pulse to make sure he's still breathing regularly, when I'm satisfied I move off of him to stand up. I look down at his face for the first time and can barely believe my eyes. He's just a kid. Maybe 14 or 15. I just knocked out a baby-faced kid. Don't get me wrong, it was they're choice in the first place to join this messed up cult, but I'm not entirely sure they had a choice to leave once they were brought into it.

Another thought occurs to me. Why didn't he use his abilities on me? Did he try and just couldn't control them? Or did he not want to hurt me?

I'm still standing there befuddled, staring at the kid, when I hear a grunt over to my right. I turn my head just in time to catch Bucky throwing the guy he was fighting onto the ground. My eyes move to Bucky's face and I see a look cross it, a look I've never seen him use before. It's pretty scary to be honest.

I look at the guy and see he's stopped moving. I don't have time to wonder if he's alive though, because out of the corner of my eye I see the leader making his move over to a vulnerable Bucky. The guy's hand is outstretched and glowing red, and I'm standing here shell-shocked. This is the first time I've ever been in the presence of someone else with abilities, let alone someone using their abilities right in front of me.

I find a way to shake myself out of my awe long enough to scream "Bucky! Behind you!"

I was too late though. The second Bucky swings his arm to block the leader, he releases a ball of energy on Bucky.

It happens in slow motion.

One second Bucky's standing there, looking confused. The next he's writhing on the ground in pain. And I have no idea what to do. Whatever he was hit with must have attacked his nervous system somehow. I look up from the pain filled Bucky and see that the leader is standing over him with his hood down, when it came off I have no idea, with this smart-ass smirk on hiss face.

I start to panic when Bucky stops moving all together. I catch the leader moving my direction out of the corner of my eye, and I'm momentarily sidetracked. "You will eventually bow down to Orion, human. You all do." The leader says it gesturing to Bucky with the same smirk on his face.

And I lose it.

I catch him off guard when I rush him. His eyes become huge, like he's afraid. Good, he should be afraid of me. I use his surprise against him, and try to get him on the ground like the last guy I just fought.

I go down low to the ground while spin kicking my left leg out toward his, successfully sweeping them out from under him. He lands on his ass, looking confused as to how I could have gained the upper hand so quickly. I can already tell that this Orion group hasn't trained them in hand-to-hand like most Shield agents are trained. They led them to believe that because they have these abilities they would always win a battle.

They were obviously wrong.

I use my right leg to push myself forward, toward him, while swinging my arm in a wide arc, hoping to connect my fist with his jaw. I hit my target and he falls backwards. I lower myself down to his face and can tell that his head is spinning from the impact. It might sound sadistic but I'm proud of myself for wiping that stupid-ass look off his face.

"Not so cocky now, are we?" His jaw sets, I must have hit a nerve. I get closer to his ear and say "You messed with the wrong human."

I sit back up on the balls of my feet. I know Bucky said that we needed him conscience, but I just can't find it inside of myself to let him get away with being a little shit. I wind my arm back, getting ready to deliver the final blow, when I see something flicker in his eyes. He's recovered from the hit. I bring my fist down as hard and fast as I can, but it doesn't connect. He grabs my other arm, that was beside his head, and releases the same energy he just put into Bucky, into me.

At first I don't feel anything, just a tiny shock and I'm about to laugh in his face about how pathetic it was. Only a second later I'm nowhere close to laughing because my entire body is on fire and my back is on the ground. I try gasping for air, but every breath I take feels like a hot branding iron being shoved down my throat. It feels like every pain receptor inside of me is going off all at once. My vision is full of black fuzzy dots. I try to lessen the pain by focusing on the leader, on the anger. But I can't concentrate on anything, the pain is to much to handle.

I feel like I'm about to lose conscience when I he comes into view. I try to move away from him but I find that I can't even feel my limbs anymore. He leans down next to me "I said that you would bow, and now here you are." The smirk is back and I feel the urge to spit in his face. It sucks that I can't even find some spit.

Through the fire, I feel something harsh stroke my hair downward. "There, there. It will be over in a couple of seconds." I feel myself growl, telling him to take his hand off me. Of course he doesn't though, because there's nothing that I can do to threaten him in my state. You would think that he would maybe want to check on his fellow Orion cronies, nope. "So beautiful, I wish The Hunter would let me keep you." Uh, okay. This ship just officially sailed into creepy territory. And who the hell is "The Hunter"?

I can see him leering at me out of the corner of my eye. He leans down, and for a second I think he's gonna kiss me or something. No, he does something even creepier. He starts sniffing my hair. Okay, whatever floats your boat dude. "Of course we wouldn't be able to take your friend, he'll have to go." I'm brought back to the sight of Bucky falling to the ground in pain. The only person I know without any vulnerabilities being taken down by someone like this scum.

I can slowly feel the rage start to set in and suddenly the pain starts to recede. I don't know how, but I don't question it. I keep my mind on that image of Bucky. I can feel it adding fuel to the fire inside of me. The pain is almost becoming manageable, I can't allow creepy in on it though. I have to strike him while he still thinks I'm defenseless. I slowly try to move my fingers and toes. When I can feel them moving again I know that now's my chance. The things is I have to figure out a way to take him down without him hitting me with the energy again.

Sadly, I already know what has to be done. I never wanted to have to do it again, but it's the only way, I have to get to Bucky.

Without moving any other part of my body, I close my eyes letting him believe that I passed out from the pain. "Sleep for now." He says, to close to my ear I might add. I try not to focus on the rage though because if I do, I'll break the connection.

I focus on connecting my mind with his. It's harder to connect with someone's mind when you're not physically touching them. It takes me a couple minutes, but I can feel it the second I have access.

It's not like it was with Bucky, with him it was done with the full cooperation of the other participant. It was intimate. Whereas, this guy has no idea I'm even in his head right now. I move quickly through his memories, sidestepping his thoughts so he doesn't know I'm here, until I find the specific one I'm looking for.

It's really hard to keep someone out of the melding process. When I'm the only one going in to a memory it becomes a lot of intricate parts that have to be carefully sorted through. I hold on though, and after what feels like an hour, I'm in.

The scene unfolds.

I'm lying in a small bed, walls filled with glow-in-the-dark stars all around me. A woman is sitting on the bed talking to us. I try to hone in on what she's saying.

"Sweety, you have to take them down. I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice." I have no idea what she's talking about. Take what down?

"No you can't take my stars. I need them, it'll be too dark if you take them from me." Okay stars, got it.

"If we expect to try and sell the house we'll have to make some changes. Some people don't like glowing stars." She says it calmly, seeing us start freak out.

"But I don't even want to move, why can't we just stay here?" We say with a pouty face.

"We've already talked about this Joshua." She's starting to sound exasperated with the whole conversation. I get it though, this kid is super whiny.

"Bu-" She cuts in "But nothing!" I can feel our eyes water, preparing for major hysteria.

She can see that and says "We can talk more tomorrow, it's time for bed now." She gets up from the bed and hugs us while bidding goodnight.

We lay back down, with a pout still on our face.

I can feel the thoughts coming on, so I pull back a little and let the memory take control.

Why couldn't she just understand that we needed them? It's not like we were a baby for not liking the dark. And it isn't even like we 'needed' needed them, we just wanted them in case we had to get up in the middle of the night or something. You do need light to walk to the bathroom.

We definitely weren't a baby. And we are definitely not afraid of anything.

I bring myself completely out of the memory, having already gotten what I needed. Plus I couldn't handle much more whiny thoughts.

I feel myself drift back to my body and I try to stay as still as possible, not knowing how much time has passed since I entered his mind. You can lose a lot of time traveling through memories, from a second up to multiple days could pass and I wouldn't even know the difference. I lay, listening to the noises around me.

I can still hear the leader, or Joshua, breathing beside me. Good, I'll need him close for this next part of the plan. I only hope that his childhood fear still haunts him.

I picture complete and utter darkness in my mind. Not like a dark room, like a mass of shadows slithering around. When I feel like I have what I need, I start projecting the image outward. I can feel it expanding outside of my mind. This part of my abilities has always been the trickiest, one wrong move and I could lose control. I could end up projecting the image onto everyone.

I know it works when I hear Joshua start screaming.

My eyes flash open and I sit-up. I look over to where Joshua's running around screaming his head off like a crazy person. Which he may as well be since his greatest fear has just come to life. "What's happening? What is this? Make it go away! Help!" I feel so disgusted with myself that I almost take the image from him.

I remember the one and only time I had ever done this before. It was during my initial powers training. Both my parents and Coulson wanted to see how far my abilities could stretch and exactly how many abilities I could access at the time. They told me to input an image in someone else's mind. An agent was used as the guinea pig.

Something a lot of people don't know about me is that I was totally obsessed with unicorns when I was that age. I know, a little childish, but I was only ten at the time! Anyway, the first image that came to my mind was, of course, a unicorn. Only I didn't know that the agent I was working with was deathly afraid of horses ever since an accident from when she was little.

Let's just say it didn't end pretty or nice. We all vowed that I would never try to project ever again.

Only this time it's even more evil. Unlike the agent, I actually sought out this guys worst fear.

I hate myself right now, watching him face this down. I made a promise to never use someones fears against them. It would be wrong to do. And yet, here I am.

I have things to worry about now, other than the sickness developing in the pit of my stomach. Including the reason I did this horrifying act in the first place. I look over at Bucky's still form and see that his chest is still moving up and down.

I let out a long breath of relief.

My ears pick-up how quiet it's become. I stand up and look around for Joshua, wanting to know if he's still in the area.

I move to look behind a grouping of trees to my left, and I see he's passed out. He must have had a panic attack and fainted. I start to feel the guilt rise up in me again. Save it for later Ari.

I sweep my eyes over the surrounding area, making sure no one else is about to jump out of the trees. When I'm satisfied I back up against one of the trees, close my eyes, and take a deep breath, preparing myself for what's to come. I stay like that for a couple of minutes, just listening to the birds chirp.

When I open my eyes again they catch the smoke in the distance for the first time. Shit I almost forgot about the explosion we heard right before the fight. I'm about to run towards it when I'm reminded of something.

Bucky.

I see that all of the Orion are still unconscious on ground as I run over to Bucky. I kneel down next to him and start shaking his shoulder to wake him up. It takes a couple moments, but he soon stirs out of unconsciousness.

"C'mon Bucky you gotta get up, we have to get to the others." He seems to hear me because a second later his eyes pop open. He doesn't go for my throat, which is a nice change, but he does jump to his feet and starts assessing the immediate area for any threats. While I'm left kneeling on the ground like an idiot. How the hell does he go from being knocked out to super ninja in five seconds?

"Dude chill, I took care of them. It's alright." I get to my feet and wipe my hands on my jeans.

"What happened while I was out?" He's still breathing heavy from being forced awake and his eyes wander to a spot somewhere behind me. I immediately know what, or who, he's looking at.

I let my own eyes go to the spot, Joshua. I know I don't have the time right now to tell him the whole story so I keep it short. "Like I said, I took care of it."

Just like every other time I've skirted around the truth when answering his questions, he let's it drop and gives me a nod of understanding. I can't believe that he's still letting me get away with it though.

"We need to tie them up." I nod and walk over to the backpack I was carrying before we were attacked. I unzip it and grab a couple pairs of handcuffs. I'm glad I decided to bring some with me, otherwise we'd be stuck here babysitting.

I hand a pair of them to Bucky and he walk off towards the two assailants closest to each other. Which means I'm left with my own handy-work. I open the handcuffs with the programed key specific to them.

These cuffs aren't your regular metal handcuffs either, they're charged with enough electricity to kill a dinosaur. Well I imagine they could kill a dinosaur, of course I can't be one hundred percent sure since, you know, I've never met an actual dinosaur.

I do know that no one has ever been able to break through them, even powered people.

Leave it to Shield to never go half-assed on their tech.

Once I reach the once conscious Joshua, I turn him over and secure the cuffs on him. When I'm done I reposition him into a sitting position. I tell myself I'm only doing it because I don't want him to suffocate of drown in his own drool while being on his stomach but I'm a liar, I did it because I feel bad and want to make it up by making him as comfortable as possible.

Even though he's probably a killer and would've killed Bucky and I. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm not really the most rational person in the universe.

"He secure?" I hear Bucky say over my shoulder. I take one last look at the person in front of me and say "Yeah he's not going anywhere."

I stand, grab my bag, and make my way over to where Bucky's standing. "Alright, what's our plan of attack?"

He looks confused "We're not attacking anyone."

He must not understand me "Yeah we are, we have to get back to the base and help the others, didn't you hear that explosion."

Bucky's face is a mask when he says "Aria We are not going back for them, we have to get out of here."

I look at him with disbelief "What in the hell are you talking about? Of course we are, that's our fellow agents in there Bucky. We have to save them." I back away from him incredulously and turn, walking in the direction of the base.

A metal hand grabs my arm before I can make it any further then ten feet.

I rip my arm out of his grip "Why are you trying to stop me? Don't you care that there might be people dying, or dead, in there?" I say it in a hushed voice trying to conceal my anger towards him.

"Don't you think I know that?" He says in a loud voice, obviously not trying to conceal his anger towards me.

"Then why aren't we already in there?"

"Because the mission come first."

* * *

**So, you decided to take a look at my news? Of course you did cause your awesome! Okay, so I've been trying to figure out where I want to go next and I think I've found the perfect place. *drum roll…. Daredevil! I have wanted to write a story in the Daredevil TV universe since it first aired. I was just like a lot of you guys, waiting for 12pm to hit so I could binge. I love, love, love it. Which means of course, that I'm staying in the marvel universe for the time being. Yay! And I solemnly swear not to lose focus on this story, since this is my baby and it will always come first. The reason I want to do it now is because I haven't seen to many Matt/OC fics right now, but I'm sure it'll change in the future. So tell me what you think and if there's anything/or one you want to see in the new fic, I'm open to suggestions. Thank you for reading this super long A/N and have a super awesome day! **


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